UK fires up old coal power plant as gas prices soar

ho hum

**LINK**

Fail to plan, plan to fail ...

You can monitor the grid HERE if it's of interest.
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Bill

So the idiots in charge aren’t as stupid as I thought,the media were telling us all the coal power stations were being demolished with no replacement atm🤔😬

Tony

TP1 , sorry , but 'they' are even more stupid than you can ever imagine.

Ask 'them' if they can fire up Ferrybridge, Didcot, Eggborough , etc .

The remaining buildings may burn well but that's all .

Luck, is all that is keeping the lights on 24/7 .

Even that may not be possible in a years time.

Coal station closure

When the wind does not blow there is plenty of alternative hot air about. Mind you not much good for generating power.

Edited By KWIL on 07/09/2021 09:02:44

What are the alternatives? Agile has an electricity contract that charges rates dependent on instant wholesale prices and has been as high as 35p/kWh recently with gas being in short supply and little wind. Nuclear sounds good but always ends up costing way more than advertised when it comes to decommissioning and the more of those you build the more three-mile-island/Chernobyl/Fukushima's are going to happen. I'm all for stuffing nuclear stations on the East coast and only firing them up when the wind is blowing towards France but wind has a habit of circling back again. Tidal power is reliable iF one could avoid marine environment damage. Perhaps the only solution is more wind stations combines with some way of storing excess generation for lean times - and there's no good answer to that (Hot sodium, weights up hills, H2 ?)
And with the stubbornness of US coal powered leccy and China's intransigence we're spitting into the gale...

Those of us who grew up with frost on the inside of the bedroom windows, thick pyjamas and waiting for dad to light the fire so we could get dressed in the sitting room don't particularly want to go back but know the human race can survive without cooking up a whole house out of convenience.

I get into enough trouble trying to get OH to turn the rads off in rooms we aren't using..

pgk

Up here in scotchland I don't think I have ever seen it so calm for so long

Enjoying it while it lasts, because we won't see this again for a long time

Nuclear decommissioning costs were 'built -into' the CEGB budgets.

That money 'disappeared' with privatisation.

PGK, I think the French beat us to it, they have positioned a number of their nuclear plants on the coast of Brittany and with the prevailing wind being a south westerly, where I live in East Sussex is right in the firing line if they happen to have an “accidental” discharge. Dave W

'Clean, Green New Zealand' [laughter] has just burned more coal than ever before. It seems that we're not alone. There's really no hope, while 'the economy' is all-important.

Investment tip: invest in coal mines!

Our 'economy' has to be important else we will not have the money to go completely green & save 1% of CO2 world emissions.

Tony

'Wiki ' CEGB and weep.

1971 , we had 55GW installed capacity , and would max. out at 45GW on a 'good ' day.

The difference is the 'export' of our heavy industries to China , with predictable results.

Better stop using your electric car until the problem is resolved.

Steam power forever!