Power to the people

[JBR]

If all the coal is burned in power stations then what will people use in their stoves and aga's?
You haven't thought this out too well.

Yes I have - it's quite simple really.

The one big natural resource we have in this country is coal. It's just that we tie our own hands behind our backs and forbid ourselves from using it.

If our policy makers had some common sense, we would be using this dependable God-given resource to generate power. It would also create many extra jobs.

And to those who say we are polluting the atmosphere, what about the Chinese? Has our self-flagellation and pursuite of the moral high ground changed their approach? Not a bit.

Yes, there is a great deal of accessible coal still down there. The trouble is that the damage has now been done. If the coal mines had been maintained, if not actually used, we could easily re-open them. I'm afraid that to reinstate them now would be far too expensive although perhaps in the future necessity may actually bring that about.

 

[JBR]

In contrast, the dirty way isn't as dirty as a lot of people think but past accidents have jaundiced the common man's view of nuclear power.

For what it's worth, I think the future will be nuclear and it will be doughnut shaped. This may not happen in what's left of my lifetime but it's the best option we've got - at least until the day arrives when we run out of deuterium.

I agree. Nuclear is the only practical way forward. It is happening, at last, and I believe it will continue to happen. The trouble is, we Brits seem to make a habit of leaving things until the last minute, with the result that things have to get pretty bad before they are rectified.

 

[ladylola]

TEQ's , TEQ's , TEQ's

The sooner we scrap them, ...............dependable power.

Firstly you can't scrap something we don't actually have yet but more importantly you've missed the point again by a country mile. TEQ's are about limiting consumption to achieve a dependable power system . The generation can be by any means but by limiting unrestricted access to that power gives us the best solution to an energy crisis because there really is no way to generate our way out both cost and a finite resource come into play with an infinitely expanding system. It really is very simple.

 

[tony1851]

limiting unrestricted access to that power gives us the best solution to an energy crisis

If you start limiting access to power, who decides how much we have? Are we going to be ordered to turn our lights off at 10pm? Are we only going to be allowed to drive on alternate days of the week? Eastern Europe before the fall of the iron curtain springs to mind.

Limiting access to anything is turning the clock back, and as the Lady said, 'you cannot buck the market'.

If there is an energy crisis, it is largely self-inflicted by governments supinely following the herd; in turn, the herd believes all the mumbo-jumbo churned out by self-serving scientists who have convinced themselves that there is such a thing as man-made climate change.

 

[JBR]

Firstly you can't scrap something we don't actually have yet but more importantly you've missed the point again by a country mile. TEQ's are about limiting consumption to achieve a dependable power system . The generation can be by any means but by limiting unrestricted access to that power gives us the best solution to an energy crisis because there really is no way to generate our way out both cost and a finite resource come into play with an infinitely expanding system. It really is very simple.

So your answer to the problem, then, is routine power cuts.

It's been tried before and, to the best of my knowledge, it didn't receive much public support!

 

[EFLImpudence]

Are we saved?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26340038

...These [cooling] particles form clouds that block sunlight as well as reflecting rays back into space.

They can be formed in a number of ways, including volcanic activity and by humans, through the burning of coal and oil....

It must be right; it's from experts.

 

[ladylola]

So your answer to the problem, then, is routine power cuts.

No ( although a few cuts might just wake people up) TEQ's are there to prevent power cuts by giving everyone a share rather than the market lead scrabble we have now.
If I may give an analogy . Imagine you are in a car and the fuel is low. You may not have enough fuel to get home, but you could drive slower to conserve fuel and thus be able to get home. That's what TEQ's are doing. Market forces and unfetted access would just put their foot down and drive faster.
TEQ' s are more about common sense than anything else , using a finite resource rather than wasting it in as short a time as possible.

 

[tony1851]

using a finite resource rather than wasting it in as short a time as possible.

Not necessarily; future generations will find different ways of producing power, some we may not even have thought about yet.

By the way, if you want to use the car-driving analogy:
The Chinese and others with commonsense are putting their foot to the floor, while we just trundle along with the handbrake on.
Result? They will eventually overtake us and have a higher standard of living, with plenty of electric power to boot, produced with coal.

 

[Norcon]

using a finite resource rather than wasting it in as short a time as possible.

Not necessarily; future generations will find different ways of producing power, some we may not even have thought about yet.

By the way, if you want to use the car-driving analogy:
The Chinese and others with commonsense are putting their foot to the floor, while we just trundle along with the handbrake on.
Result? They will eventually overtake us and have a higher standard of living, with plenty of electric power to boot, produced with coal.

China only has 40 years supply of coal left at the current rate of consumption.

What do you think will happen when the reserves are stripped bare by the locusts?
The time for this magical energy you think future generations will create is now.
And guess what?
No one can conjure it up. And a good job too!

 

[ladylola]

; future generations will find different ways of producing power, some we may not even have thought about yet.

Oh goody , blind faith. I wondered when religion was going to make an entrance.
Oh and I think it was Neecher than said how faith in technogoly was replacing faith in god in the western world so religion in all but name.

 

[Dextraneous]

OMG - reductio ad deo

 

[Norcon]

China has 11 nuclear power plants now and is in the process of building 20 more.
If they have no coal they will need at least 600 nuclear powered plants.

 

[JBR]

So your answer to the problem, then, is routine power cuts.

No ( although a few cuts might just wake people up) TEQ's are there to prevent power cuts by giving everyone a share rather than the market lead scrabble we have now.
If I may give an analogy . Imagine you are in a car and the fuel is low. You may not have enough fuel to get home, but you could drive slower to conserve fuel and thus be able to get home.

Unless, of course, you are an Irishman. Like the Irishman caught speeding by the police, and gave the reason that he was low on petrol and wanted to get home before it ran out!

Seriously, though, who are these people who use too much electricity? I certainly don't because it's so bloody expensive. I suppose there are those who have money to burn, though.

 

[JBR]

By the way, if you want to use the car-driving analogy:
The Chinese and others with common sense are putting their foot to the floor, while we just trundle along with the handbrake on.
Result? They will eventually overtake us and have a higher standard of living, with plenty of electric power to boot, produced with coal.

It will happen. A long time ago my dad told me how someone (? - might have been Nostradamus) predicted that the world would be taken over by 'yellow people'.

I'm sure that in the not too distant future, China will overtake America and become the world's greatest power. Good luck to them, I say.

As for the power source, yes, coal will run out like all fossil fuels. I'm sure they will move very quickly to nuclear power when the need arises. I don't think they have windmill-touting greenies in China!

 

[ajstoneservices]

China has the sense to know it needs a mix of generators. It also has the money, we don't. And that's the reason we aren't building nuclear power plants.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25637718

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_China