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Why does the U.K. have the highest fuel prices in the World?
NET ZEROhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JXnDSSeZa8&t=960s
We are de-Industrialising at an astonishingly fast speed.
Only one Virgin Steel Works left
and that hangs by its fingernails.If only that were true.
Maybe you could elucidate, Shibboleth
make (something) clear; explain.
The United Kingdom is the World Leader in Net Zero.
The Elite are obsessive.
They never ask the lower orders, if they agree with Net Zero?“The United Kingdom is the World Leader in Net Zero. The Elite are obsessive. They never ask the lower orders, if they agree with Net Zero?”
Many people are obsessed with things they don’t understand or agree with, Michael. We are a very reactionary, superstitious and fearful hairless ape, after all. The remainder are obsessed by things that truly matter and what they can influence. The road to contentment, not perdition.
Your recent posts are instructive. I do sincerely hope you can attain your own metanoia one day, but that requires a step into the unknown and a complete surrender to the reality you discover there.
All the best with that endeavour.
Michael, there are a lot of reasons British energy prices are so high. I’ve posted a lot of them. I wish you had read them so I didn’t have to post them again.
There are certain people and groups that would pin all the blame on net zero, but as I keep demonstrating, they are dishonest. The reason for their dishonesty is to distort public opinion to influence voting patterns, both ours (the electorate) and MPs in parliamentary votes.
Collectively, the reasons add up to decades of mismanagement of Britain’s energy infrastructure, and some very bad subsidy regimes that are easy to exploit.
Here are a few of the contributory issues:
* Blair’s government sold Britain’s only long term gas storage facility, a depleted gas North Sea gas field called Rough, to Centrica Storage. Centrica Storage trashed it by misusing it to play the market. Cameron’s government then let Centrica Storage off of their contractual obligation to repair it. Underlying cause – privatisation and corruption.
* Insufficient grid has been built to accept all the output of wind farms, especially offshore one. The subsidy regime then pays new wind farms silly money NOT to generate electricity if the grid can’t accept it. Underlying cause – incompetent legislation at best, possibly corrupt.
* Insufficient north-south grid has been built by Scottish Power and another Scottish company, so often, although enough electricity can be generated, it can’t be moved to the right part of the country, causing more expensive electricity to be imported via the interconnectors from mainland Europe. Underlying cause – I don’t know.
* The west coast distribution HVDC link has been up and running for years, but the more important east coast one hasn’t even been started, it’s over a decade behind schedule. Underlying cause – I don’t know.
Michael, my info comes from an expert who has been watching this débâcle unfold over the course of decades. He is utterly furious about it. Please make good use of all the work he has done. He is a good and honest man.
The people who blame net zero are the ones getting rich off Britain’s extortionate energy prices. Upgrading the grid would bring energy prices down, so they want to prevent that. Don’t fall for their propaganda.
Michael, you should be able to tell my real-world description from commercially motivated propaganda, by contrasting the detail and complexity of my comment against the soundbite nature of “net zero is bankrupting us”.
I don’t claim to know all the problems, and I’ve listed just the problems I happen to remember right now.
Michael, a bit more real world energy infrastructure stuff.
It is true that there is not enough gas generation capacity to satisfy demand when windspeed across the whole country is low, but without a long term gas storage facility we wouldn’t be able to run extra gas-fired power stations anyway, we just can’t get gas into the country fast enough to run more than we already have.
I hope you can tell the difference between engineering considerations and commercially motivated propaganda.
C lark, thanks for your considered replies.
Something confuses me.
Base Load.
Once we used to rely on home dug Coal for the Base Load
of our Electricity.
I think we then moved ” Dash for Gas”
towards a Base Load that was based on home dug Coal with home extracted North Sea Gas or Natural Gas.
That used to seem to work reasonably well.
Now, at least in part we use or will be using Nuclear Energy to be our Base Load.
If/when Hinkley Point C and Sizewell
https://www.edfenergy.com/energy/nuclear-new-build-projects/hinkley-point-c
and
https://www.sizewellc.com/
We could have somewhere between 1/4 to 1/3
of our Base Load supplied by Nuclear.
I think the government call this “Green” Energy.
I had thought that the efficient way for a Nuclear Power Station to run was constantly, just slightly below “Flat Out”we seem to varry in our Nuclear Energy to our National Grid, between 10% -20%.
That seems rather strange.
Currently the figure is 20% 04.42 17/04/2025Is it because less electricity is consumed at night, therefor the Nuclear Plants are still constant?
So, at a casual look, it just seems they are producing more but they are producing the same?Anyway, moving on, If we do have two or four or six or eight new EPR reactors running and we gradually shut down the older Nuclear facilities, our Base Load, will be Nuclear.
These facilities are incredibly expensive, I am assuming that the new fleet of EPR
will be running all the time ( apart from refueling) at close to maximum, for the next sixty years?
If one EPR Reactor produces 3 1/2 per cent of our needs, a double will produce 7% of our needs, so three doubles would produce 21 % of our needs.
If the U.K. now (minimally) produces 10% of our Base Load,
do you think in fifteen years ( even without Modular Nuclear Reactors) we could be producing something like 31% of our needed Electrical supply from home based Nuclear Power?If in fifteen years, we are producing something like 1/3 of our Electricity by Nuclear Base Load,
does that mean, that at times we will have to “dump” at least some of the renewably produced
home spun electricity?
Perhaps we could be a net exporter of electricity to Europe?Anyway, my concern would be, we could get to the point, where we would not need all the Wind or all the Solar,
that we will have installed, in fifteen years?
I would be interested in your thoughts?Checking gridwatch,
last year, 2024 Nuclear did not stay constant.
It seemed to have changed between 2.5 to 5.0Probably the lower figures are when plants have come off line?
https://gridwatch.co.uk/Let’s go Green to save the planet. Let’s, let others do the dirty work, while we claim we are so clean?
“Rare Earths are mostly mined and refined in China”quote BBC
“In a visit to Inner Mongolia in 1992, the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who oversaw China’s economic reform, famously said: “The Middle East has oil and China has rare earths”.“Beginning in the late 20th century, China prioritised the development of its rare earth mining and processing capabilities, often at lower environmental standards and labour costs compared to other nations,” said Gavin Harper, a critical materials research fellow at the University of Birmingham.
“This allowed them to undercut global competitors and build a near-monopoly across the entire value chain, from mining and refining to the manufacturing of finished products like magnets.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1drqeev36qoSo, if we go for Nuclear Base Load for our U.K. Electricity supply, because by 2030, we expect to be producing our Electricity 95% as ,
where will we get the Yellow Cake?
I doubt we will mine it in the U.K., maybe we could buy some from France, after all, they have a huge Nuclear Industry and we will be moving to French Tech.
Hang on, the French do not mine the Uranium in France, they mostly get it from their former colonies.
Yellow dust blowing across The Sahel.
Some of their stuff comes from Russia or The Former Soviet Union states.
Some from Australia and some from Canada.
It is a dirty business.It would seem, almost all energy has a dirty side.
Mobile phones and Laptops also have a dirty side.
EV vehicles, also have a dirty side.
As we in the U.K. are quickly moving to a new Utopia, where we hardly mine anything, my goodness, we have clean hands and clean souls.
Yet, almost everything we require, comes from the land or from under the surface.
Is it correct, to just let other people do all this dirty work for us?Modern Britain was at least in part, built on mining.
Mining or ochres, mining of kaolin, mining of salts, mining of tungsten, mining of potash, mining of copper, mining of lead, mining of tin, mining of slate, mining of coal, mining of calamine, mining of graphite ( our first strategic resource) mining of silver, mining of gold, mining of limestone, sands, clays, gravels, sandstones and so on.
We still do a bit of mining, most open cast. We are opening a new ( expensive) mine in Yorkshire – Woodsmith
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodsmith_Mine
Polyhalite, this will probably, also become a strategic resource, as globalisation ends and the growing of food in the U.K. becomes very important.well, well, well, we might not be done yet, in the U.K.
Quote
” The town grew from a mere idea in the late-1820s, to become the commercial centre of one of the world’s greatest iron and steel producing regions in little over two generations. By 1881, the year of Middlesbrough’s Golden Jubilee, output of ironstone drawn from the Cleveland ore-field exceeded 6,000,000 tons”
“Cleveland Ironstone Formation”
https://www.geplus.co.uk/news/woodsmith-makes-shaft-sinking-progress-despite-project-slowdown-31-01-2025/
So as it sinks, the Woodsmith mine goes through The Cleveland Ironstone Formation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Ironstone_Formation#:~:text=The%20Cleveland%20Ironstone%20Formation%20is,underlying%20Cleveland%20in%20North%20Yorkshire.As this may well be one of the deepest mines in all of Europe,
many formation will be encountered, some may come to have commercial possibilities.
Maybe one day, we could resume mining Iron ore in the East of England.Michael, there’s a lot for me to catch up with since I posted last night, and I might not be able to, it looks like I have a very busy time ahead. The Gridwatch site you linked has historical generation figures that may help answer some of your questions.
Scotland – recycling
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce822pe7p4yo.ampQuote BBC
“Police and firefighters have begun investigations into the cause of a blaze at a battery recycling plant in North Ayrshire.The fire at Fenix Battery Recycling on Byrehill Industrial Estate in Kilwinning”
Second fire at this place in twelve months.
The heat and smoke are intense.
It is very near houses.Quite tricky transporting EV.
RoRo Ship Delphine Catches Fire with just 60 EVs Onboard.
No global rules for transporting electrical vehicles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8s3mSNdZScSupercritical carbon dioxide
EVIL Carbon dioxide has some uses
“sCO2 promises substantial efficiency improvements.
Due to its high fluid density, sCO2 enables compact and efficient turbomachinery.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercritical_carbon_dioxide
For use in power stations or as boat turbines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7dr6oKHqqMLet’s see, useful for plants,
useful for cleaning foods.
Useful for putting out fires.
Useful for making small efficient turbines.Net Zero
Let the public debate proceed.
Ed Miliband accuses Net Zero opponents of “nonsense and lies”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czjn0pn830ko
Writing in the Observer, external, ED Miliband warned that an anti-net zero agenda would not only risk “climate breakdown” but “forfeit the clean energy jobs of the future”.It is about time this was talked about in public, the Labour Government need to either convince the public of
Net Zero by 2030
or change course.At the present time 0.645 Easter Sunday 2025
we are importing one third of our electricity supply.
We have no control on how that electricity is produced.In the United Kingdom,
Climate Consensus is falling apart
“there is a growing consensus that the current regime has failed”
About 90% – 95% of the World’s solar panels are manufactured in China.
55% – 60% of the World’s Steel is manufactured in China.
(05 – 95% of the World’s rare earths are processed in China.
We are entering a period where globalisation is collapsing.
This, might be one of the reasons that Jonathan Neil Reynolds, (his is wife Claire is Keir Starmer’s political director in Downing Street), ( Jon is not a qualified solicitor as he had claimed) President of the Board of Trade
has ordered the government take-over of British Steel.
If it is going to become, ever more difficult to import Steel, rare earth magnets, solar panels, car batteries, motors for wind turbines and so on, how does Ed Milliband envision, Net Zero panning out in the run-down to Net Zero 2030?Michael,
We all know that. We also know that our growth and consumption continue apace, and the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. We know that it has taken millions of years for hairless apes to multiply to a population of one billion in 1810 – and just 200 years for the population to increase eight-fold. That is unprecedented in our history. We also know that fossil fuels have turbocharged our growth and we’ve extracted more natural resources to meet the insatiable demands we exert on this planet. We know that continue and if we use up all these resources, we will very likely become extinct along with many other species who have been unfortunate to exist alongside. Aside from some domesticated animals, we would not be misssed is we were suddenly not here.
Knowing these things doesn’t make us “right” – just terribly sad and a little frightened for what the future holds for our children and grandchildren.
I don’t know why you keep banging the drum of berating politicians failing to maintain and exploit the destructive industries of the recent past – you want more steel production with all the ecological implications of maintaining that industry? Why? What about recycling what is already there and using it sparingly? How about a universal income and a job guarantee – and a three day week with two days environmental restoration and two days rest? I do think most people know what’s facing us and are trying to think of how we can let ourselves down gently and allow future generations of hairless apes to live in peace and contentment for many years to come, but that seems as elusive as is your enlightenment and metanoia.
Please change the record.
But
Ed Milliband imagines he knows best. His vision must come from GOD.
He is of course delusional.
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/delusional#:~:text=A%20delusional%20person%20believes%20things,yourself%20by%20believing%20outrageous%20things.
Ed Milliband imagines our electricity supply will be 95% green by 2030.
That will not happen.
He does not think 3D.
He is more of a tunnel vision personality.
Let’s say Ed is right and the world will become too hot for humans to live equitably in the United Kingdom, unless we engross ourselves in total Net Zero Ideology.
Why allow millions more people to enter of tiny country?
Why plan to construct one and a half million extra homes by 2030?
Why plan to increase the functionality of airports?
Why build more concrete runways.If we are to have a mostly electric future, they will have to massively increase the National Grid, this will use a phenomenal amounts of steel and aluminium and copper.
This cannot happen in four and a half years.
There is not enough copper in the world, for all the world to go all electric.
As I am always being told it is global warming not local warming.
If little Britain did become Net Zero but nobody else did, how would that reduce the Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?I dont give a fuck about Ed Milliband – I was replying to you, Michael. Why do you always revert to Ed when in a corner? Have you a nascent lust for him? Please change the record mate or I’m out.
