UKs electricity generating infrastructure.
It’s nice of them to notice, they are a decade late but at least
they are finally speaking up. By 2015 we are being told, the UKs reserve
generating capacity will be down to as low as 2%. Do ministers talk to each
other? Does that 2% figure represent current demands or does it include the
hundreds of thousands of new homes that this government is pushing to
build.
Also we are at a low point in terms of commercial demand, coming
out of a recession and all that. Are they factoring in to that 2% all the
companies that are going to be working hard to make more items, sell more goods,
hire a few more staff or return to pre 2008 levels of business.
For a decade it has been known that aging generators are coming
to the end of their lives. The stranglehold given to EU regulations by our
government is also signalling the deaths of many other electricity generators in
the name of carbon reduction and other stupidity. The last government did
nothing. The current government has done nothing. By the time the next
government turns up it will be too late.
It takes over a year to build a new coal or gas fired power station.
Nuclear takes many times that long. Solar, hello this is the UK. Wind turbines;
do not get me started on the ponzi scheme that wind turbines stand at
the top of. Tidal, I would love the UK to get serious about tidal since we are
an island. But the money spent on tidal each year by our government is a tiny
fraction of the billions spend on building yet more of the wind turbines that
from time to time have been known to produce some electricity.
We have EDF of France in the process of not building one new
plant at Hinckley point until they sort out a few points with the government.
Subsidies, higher electricity prices, bigger profit margins for EDF, those
sorts of little details.
But aside from that we have how many new nuclear plants under
construction. Anyone?
Coal fired plants, well they are facing shutdown to meet EU rules
over carbon emissions while our German neighbours are busy building new coal
fired plants using German brown coal which is far dirtier than British black
coal.
One of our biggest coal plants is looking at spending £700 million to convert
to biomass, specifically wood pellets. This is being done in the name of protecting
the enviroment from that nasty carbon stuff that we exhale and that plants feed
on. Hum. Just how environmentally friendly is this going to be? Well the wood
pellets come from the US which means they are being shipped across the Atlantic.
They are actively cutting down trees just to burn them which mean less trees
absorbing the same carbon that people are worried about.
The EU Institute for European Enviromental Policy produced a report expressing
concern about the gap between a matrue tree being cut down and a newly
planted tree being large enough to begin taking in the same volume of carbon.
Anyone heard of this report, anyone in government bother to read it? The
facilities to import this volume of wood pellets does not exist and so ports
need to be expanded, new roads and other facilities need to be built. Has anyone
looked at just how much carbon is going to be released by building the
infrastructure needed to burn wood that is being shipped to us from the US and
Canada. The lunatics are not just running the asylum but are running the
country.
So what is being done about this?
Well our chancellor has imposed a new tax which will double the
cost of electricity generated by Gas or coal over the next few years. Wait a
minute, are we not building new gas generators for all those times when the wind
is too slow or too fast for the wind turbines. Does that mean that not only
is wind generated electricity vastly more expensive but the gas we use to meet
our needs on the frequent occasions when wind fails is also going to become
grossly expensive?
A government scheme to insulate houses so they can reduce their
electricity use. Just how many homes have been upgraded by this one then?
Anyone?
How about the idea of paying the big commercial users to shut down
and stop using electricity during periods of high demand. So as well as
paying the highest price in Europe for electricity we are going to be paying yet
another levy so that our biggest companies can shut down and not use the
electricity that would otherwise cause brownouts.
Recovery, what is that?
What is the end result of this going to be? Are we quickly going to see
building started on new power stations that can be online fast enough to cover
the possible gap? Are we going to see plants that are functional but being
shutdown due to EU green rules left working? Are we going to see constructive
planning put in place to ensure that the UK, in the 21stcentury continues to be a first world
nation and does not turn into a third world banana republic where electricity is
rationed and blackouts are common?
Hello, anyone in the government listening? Anyone awake over there?
So stockpiling candles it is then.