OneGuyFromBarlick

Meanwhile, tidal energy is coming closer. This array at Bluemull Sound in Shetland has been providing power to a local grid since April 2015 and today they announce that they're now connected to the national grid. LINK And all this is without the big fuss and trumpeting as seen over Hinckley C. Engineers rule, OK! (Or at least they should do.)

To be fair Tiz, Hinkley Point vs Shetland's tidal turbines is 3,200 MW full time vs 0.2 MW intermittent. A single wind turbine (albeit a big one, similar in scale to the London Eye) can generate 8MW - again intermittent.

Interesting but not relevant to Hinkley decision. I'd go with tidal power any time against something that we aren't even sure can work and is so difficult to clean up after. The time to decide about Hinkley is when we have evidence they can make one that runs!

Pluggy wrote:To be fair Tiz, Hinkley Point vs Shetland's tidal turbines is 3,200 MW full time vs 0.2 MW intermittent. A single wind turbine (albeit a big one, similar in scale to the London Eye) can generate 8MW - again intermittent.

From little acorns do big oak trees grow...I agree its' tiny compared with Hinckley but it's a beginning and we have 10,000 miles of UK mainland coastline without including the islands. And then there's wave power that can be used further out too. We should be setting these up now for our future needs, regardless of Hinckley C.

Make the Thames Barrage into a dam, flood London and install turbines. 'The Southern Powerhouse'.
Later.... I hear the lady who runs the National Grid has told us not to fret about the lights going out. Must be breaking news because it's not on the web yet. She says that smart electricity usage is going to save us.... I hope she's right but somehow I doubt it. I shall dust the Tilley Lamps!

Well worth reading Old Sparky in Private Eye this week on the subject of the burning of biomass at Drax. He reports that the owners are claiming that they are environmentally correct on the grounds that the areas in the States where they are sourcing their wood-chips have been declared ecologically sound but this doesn't address the matter of the CO2 emitted when it is burned which is actually worse than coal.

The thermostat for my CH is set at just under 18C. The heating cracked on this morning for ten minutes..... Depressing!

CH has not fired this morning. I had a 30 minute blast during the day as the house was not feeling comfortable....

Colin's brother in law works for EMEC the European Marine Energy Centre on Orkney. There is a project afoot to use excess energy from community wind & tidal turbines to create green hydrogen for use in transport & heating. Press Release

The Hinckley decision has been made...
"The government has given the go ahead for a new £18bn nuclear power station in the UK after imposing "significant new safeguards" for future projects" (BBC this morning). Of course it still depends on whether or not the Chinese will still want to go ahead. I wonder if the UK government has considered the situation if North Korea started throwing its new nuclear missiles about and we needed to apply sanctions on China to get it to control its ally?

Deeply disturbing Tiz. Also the £18billion estimate. Some sources are saying £30billion.....
There is also the small matter of the fact that none of the similar design stations are working yet....

Finally managed to book an appointment for smart meter upgrades, the option lit up on my BG account when I logged in today to give them my meter readings this month, maybe the last time I have to do that.

Ask if you can have free leccy Sat or Sunday.....

I noted this morning that the core temperature of the house with no heating has fallen to 20C. Sorry to say that at the very least it's getting to be waistcoat or cardigan time, looking ahead, the heating season looms again. get your vests on!

Cooler still this morning.... That thermostat will kick in any time soon! (Set at a tad below 18C)

The first shipment of US shale gas arrives in the UK today. (LINK)
House core temperature without any heat except for normal activity is hovering just above 18C.... Not long now!

Stanley wrote:The first shipment of US shale gas arrives in the UK today. (LINK)
House core temperature without any heat except for normal activity is hovering just above 18C.... Not long now!

"Mr Ratcliffe has accused the SNP of hypocrisy for welcoming its U.S. shale to save jobs at Grangemouth at the same time as upholding the domestic ban."

Thats the way most people seem to think, Shale gas is all about NIMBY, they couldn't care less if another country is doing it so long as its not giving jobs to UK nationals. (/sarcasm)

One point that needs making clear - Ineos isn't `importing US shale gas', it's importing ethane, a minor component of shale gas. Shale gas is mostly methane with about 1 to 5% ethane. Instead of burning the shale gas for energy it makes sense to separate the ethane first and then use the methane for energy. Ethane is a raw material for making ethylene which is the basis of many of our plastics, detergents, lubricants. Currently much of the ethylene is made by cracking petroleum oil but ethane from natural gas (fracked or otherwise) offers another source.

Thanks for the clarification Tiz. I didn't know that and neither did the reporter! The CEO of Ineos made it partially but not wholly clear in an interview yesterday and sounded very convincing.

Weather outlook is for it to get colder. To date the CH hasn't kicked in but any time now! Some things can't be avoided..... This is definitely an Energy Matter!

Came back to a confirmation letter from BG for my smart meter upgrade early next month. Still a get out clause though (a heads up as they call it in their letter) if they find that my existing meters are not suitable for upgrade, silly me, I thought that was the whole point.

They'll do a mobile phone signal check to make sure the meter can get a signal where it will be positioned. They don't go ahead if they can't get a suitable signal. (I asked a lot of questions when they did the church gas meter a few months back ). No doubt sooner or later they'll put wifi in 'em so they can communicate over an existing wifi connection.

We were refused one because of the phone signal.

Wendyf wrote:We were refused one because of the phone signal.

You can always console yourself with the paranoia, half truths and pseudoscience at sites like this : http://stopsmartmeters.org.uk/

Never wanted one anyway! Him indoors wouldn't trust 'em....he worked with someone developing the technology years ago.