renewable

[Worcester]

isar..... That's a formidable boiler, now a working one would be worth £200,000 but unfortunately yours is like the many thousands of yester year , broken and damaged by an axe welding neanderthal , in the early 21st century most isar repairs were done with an axe.

rflol .....

 

[chris watkins]

How do we generate most of our electricity it this country, what fuel is used ?

Yes our planet has seen hot & colder times but never ever, in all off its history, has the change been so rapid.

 

[SimonG]

I did some work a few years back for a bloke that was heavily involved in electrical generation plants on a large scale. He said we were about 7 to 10 years behind where we should be in moving forward with plans for new power stations. He said we were going to have fun and games in the years to come as the time couldnt be caught back up.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Company I sub to have won a 14 year fit out on a nuclear power station, rat

Does this classify as renewable?

 

[Ermintrude]

Nope not at all. Only enough 232 to supply worlds electric for 25 years topps and the few hundred year half life!

 

[PhoenixServices]

I've been watching renewables for a while. Something I would like to get into more but haven't got much demand only the odd bit of maintenance. At the minute I struggle to get people to spend £100 extra on a twin coil cylinder let alone a whole system.

 

[Ray Stafford]

Alternatives (call then renewables if you like ) are here to stay and will slowly become mainstream as the cost of traditional fuels rise higher and higher.

I think this is probably right, and how it ought to happen. If (and to be honest, I think this is still a big IF) the price of carbon fuels rise as much as is currently suggested, then normal market forces will move people to renewables/alternative technologies.

If that price move doesn't occur, then it won't happen. Its basic economics. And as any student of economics will tell you, government attempts to predict or control the price of any good or service almost always ends in disaster, and a whole raft of unintended consequences.

 

[hammers4spanner]

I've been watching renewables for a while. Something I would like to get into more but haven't got much demand only the odd bit of maintenance. At the minute I struggle to get people to spend £100 extra on a twin coil cylinder let alone a whole system.

That's half the problem sheer cost alone won't help it

 

[chris watkins]

I think this is probably right, and how it ought to happen. If (and to be honest, I think this is still a big IF) the price of carbon fuels rise as much as is currently suggested, then normal market forces will move people to renewables/alternative technologies.

If that price move doesn't occur, then it won't happen. Its basic economics. And as any student of economics will tell you, government attempts to predict or control the price of any good or service almost always ends in disaster, and a whole raft of unintended consequences.

Market forces are all well & good where there is a developed market & prices don't rise sharply, so that the available technologies are there, along with the skills to install them, not to mention the manufactures & of course stockist's.
If not then the people at the low end of our society are really going to suffer when that sharp rise in fuel costs comes !!!

Lets face it, it is a remarkable stable system with little risk or changes year to year especially as we are self-sufficient in so many for the fuel sources !!!!

Me, I would like my government (society) to be planning long term for our needs in terms of these resources that no one can live without.

However difficult & complex the issues this planning & the costs associated with our decisions can no longer be ignored. I kid you not the lights will be going off somewhere near you in the next few years if we do nothing & continue to demand more from our supply systems.

 

[Ray Stafford]

Market forces are all well & good where there is a developed market & prices don't rise sharply, so that the available technologies are there, along with the skills to install them, not to mention the manufactures & of course stockist's.
If not then the people at the low end of our society are really going to suffer when that sharp rise in fuel costs comes !!!

Lets face it, it is a remarkable stable system with little risk or changes year to year especially as we are self-sufficient in so many for the fuel sources !!!!

Me, I would like my government (society) to be planning long term for our needs in terms of these resources that no one can live without.

However difficult & complex the issues this planning & the costs associated with our decisions can no longer be ignored. I kid you not the lights will be going off somewhere near you in the next few years if we do nothing & continue to demand more from our supply systems.

The trouble is, the government (not just ours, this applies to all governments everywhere) is notoriously bad at economic planning. So, incidentally is everyone else. Economic forecasting, even by so-called "experts" is only very marginally better than having a monkey throw darts. So whilst you might be right about the forthcoming soaring costs of energy, equally you might be wrong. I have been hearing about "peak oil" since I was in my teens, and I am now in my 50s and the date that the oil will run out keeps getting moved forward. And the adjusted-for-inflation price of oil is currently significantly below where it was when I left school.

As I say - you might be right predicting massive increases in energy costs, and I am happy for you to bet your money on it and fit renewables in your property. I am even happy for the government to insist it is fitted in all government owned property. But I do have a problem with anyone who insists that I must fit it in my property - either the one I live in now, or the one I might build tomorrow.

I don't want to use the law to impose my predictions on others, and I wish that they wouldnt use the law to impose their predictions on me.


Government programmes, however well meaning, rarely achieve what they set out to achieve.

One thing we do know is that technology can consistently surprise us. Another thing that we know is that technologies that look so convincing at one point in history can look like foolish diversions just a few years later.

The reason that we currently lack the planned generating capacity that we need is because for 2 decades governments of both colours have hummed and hawed and changed their minds about the the regulatory environment that the generators operate in. Nuclear is out, nuclear is in, nuclear is out again. Renewables must be x% by this date, or is it y% by another date?

I have no faith in any government from any party "solving" the energy issue.