tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post2366197284097527949..comments2024-03-04T17:54:32.559+00:00Comments on Iain Dale's Diary: The Energy Crisis That Could Finish CameronIain Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03270146219458384372noreply@blogger.comBlogger107125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-38771410258360226582009-08-19T14:47:03.792+01:002009-08-19T14:47:03.792+01:00"Can new stations be built in time to close t..."Can new stations be built in time to close the perceived gap opening up in electricity supply, particularly in the UK? It is expected that 2012 will be the year demand for electricity exceeds supply; ominously it is the year when the Olympic Games will be held in London and power cuts would be an embarrassment.<br /><br />‘First of all, designs have to be licensed. The AP 1000 [reactor, made by Westinghouse/Toshiba] is already licensed in America, but … the UK insists on carrying out its own licensing programme, and this takes skilled manpower which is in very short supply. Licensing of proposed designs will not be complete until 2011/12 according to the Nuclear White Paper. This delay will affect the time before planning permission is obtained to build a new station. The shortage of skilled engineering manpower and experience (the last nuclear station to be built in Britain was Sizewell B in 1995) means that we have lost the ability to build a nuclear power station. We will have to rely on the French, Americans or Japanese to build one for us, and that will mean joining a queue when we get around to ordering one. As far as construction is concerned, a good deal of the work will be contracted out to British firms.<br /><br />‘The actual build time is around 45 months, based on experience in the Far East, but this stretches out to 10 years when certification and licensing, planning permission, and other bureaucracy are included. One “pinch point” common to all power station constructors is the shortage of companies able to manufacture the huge forgings necessary for a modern nuclear power station. Presently, only Japan Steel can do it… <br /><br />‘These problems emphasise the international nature of the nuclear power building programme.’ <br /><br />Professor Ian Fells quoted by Spiked<br /><br />http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7284/<br /><br />Interesting that these ex-Marxists are so much more willing to face reality than Mr Cameronneil craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09157898238945726349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-30597384827277776222009-08-17T12:49:09.389+01:002009-08-17T12:49:09.389+01:00The Economist is actually understating because the...The Economist is actually understating because there are EU emission regulations coming into force in 2015 which will close much of our coal fired power.<br /><br />Iain I find your "non-sexines" of energy remark typical of what is wrong with politics as it is done in this country where everything seems to revolve around Westminster gossip. Keeping the lights on is, 2nd only to preventing invasion, the most important thing government should be doing.<br /><br /> It is actually incredibly easy to do. All politicians have to do is to stop getting in the way. We could have unlimited amounts of electricity at 1/3rd present prices by simply not preventing the free market building nuclear power stations. Such generators can be built in 3 yearsm though there is already a world backlog (so we had better act soon). While we keep hearing about it taking 10/12/18 years all but the last 3 are politics & paper shuffling. Having such power would (A) make British industry competitive again & give us a far faster growth rate & (B) drasticlay cut the unnecessary 24,000 deaths of pensioners from cold. <br /><br />That this is not "sexy" in the Westminster village shows what an ignorant, parochial bunch of parasites are there. If Cameron does let the lights go out, vastly increasing the number of unnecessary deaths he will deserve to be "finished" by hanging from a lamppost, as will the Labour & LibDem MP parasites too.<br /><br />The total number of preventable deaths caused by political genuflecting to to the "sexy" eco-fascists could well rise, proportionately, towards those killed by Stalin, but he was at least trying to create an economy not to destroy it.neil craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09157898238945726349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-5716594689205057542009-08-17T10:20:41.527+01:002009-08-17T10:20:41.527+01:00Cameron could do worse than to check out UKIP'...Cameron could do worse than to check out UKIP's Energy and Environment policy document.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-12338378840907761852009-08-16T23:59:20.023+01:002009-08-16T23:59:20.023+01:00Every time the Greens push electric cars you might...Every time the Greens push electric cars you might want to ask them how the electricity to recharge the car batteries will be generated. <br /><br />It's also worth noting that these batteries are dependent on lithium and 90% of the world's lithium reserves are in one country. And guess what? It's not a pro-Western one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-40475979113407245762009-08-16T20:20:27.239+01:002009-08-16T20:20:27.239+01:00@ Paddy Briggs
"You have to have a long term...@ Paddy Briggs<br /><br />"You have to have a long term plan. The UK has one."<br /><br />Which is?<br /><br />All the 'plans' in the world make no damn difference - remember the Titanic? It's not plans that are important, it's action.<br /><br />Despite 'planning', brown-outs have occurred in the USA - and are likely to increase. They regularly happen in India, China and South America. Take a look at what the EC has to say about projected energy supplies and demand.<br /><br />The Economist is not saying anything radical - much of the article is culled from respectable known sources. The only criticism I have of it is that I doubt that Carbon Taxation will have much impact.Unsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08307116169498533047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-84143909978818114052009-08-16T20:19:29.270+01:002009-08-16T20:19:29.270+01:00Still while our lights go out and we shiver in the...Still while our lights go out and we shiver in the cold we can bask in the warm glow of our moral lead in fighting non existent global warming eh?<br />Perhaps Dave will build us..sorry import some windmills, I am sure they will do the business eh?<br />So we are already paying a third more for electricity than we need to because of non existent global warming, I bet we would all like to pay foreign energy firms even more so they can fight a non existent fantasy boogyman eh?<br /><br />So here we are in the near future enjoying mass unemployment and mass unrest stirred up by millitant unions etc, power cuts are common now and bills are unafordable and guess what instead of the advertised global warming we now enjoy plummeting global temperatures akin to a mini ice age and thousands of poor people are dying in misery and poverty.<br />Still the westminster commissars squabble and listen to nobody but themselves while they live in comfort and wealth hiding in the new security compounds built to seperate them from a resentful peasantry, no power cuts or food rationing for them comrades!<br />Meanwhile farming has been sabotaged so completely by the previous regime that most food comes from the channel tunnel, well as much as they can spare which aint a great deal.<br />But still the commissar class have the motorways free for their exclusive zil lanes and while they may have to kowtow to the eurotrash overseers they still enjoy wealth privilige and private shopping malls.<br /><br />Look forward to the future folks, a bed being made specially for us right now that we will all have to lie in, thanks for all the windmills that dont work, thanks for all the coal and nuclear power stations you didnt think we needed, thanks for the destruction of our agricultural economy and thanks a bunch for lying to us about global warming!<br />See you in the future folks, its nearly upon us.cassandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06088596240127998878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-14531295728494840912009-08-16T19:01:08.840+01:002009-08-16T19:01:08.840+01:00If only all the North sea oil hadn't been wais...If only all the North sea oil hadn't been waisted, what will the Scots say, One solutioni is to reopen all the pits that we were told weren't going to be shut downjohnpaulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03978755044345580501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-57108155149431846552009-08-16T15:55:50.136+01:002009-08-16T15:55:50.136+01:00I was in The Philippines some time back in the 199...I was in The Philippines some time back in the 1990s when they suffered “brown outs” in Manila and a few other places. These were temporary cessations of electricity supply caused by short term demand exceeding short term supply. The reason they were in the shit was that there had been absolutely no long term energy planning.<br /><br />The United Kingdom is not The Philippines and we are absolutely not in the same situation. You cannot plug short-term energy imbalances with emergency supply measures. You have to have a long term plan. The UK has one.Paddy Briggshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17847108655078927970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-83553246718659718132009-08-16T15:25:39.340+01:002009-08-16T15:25:39.340+01:00The only surprising thing about this is that you a...The only surprising thing about this is that you are surprised. This crisis has been a long time coming and only the complete incompetence of the current Government has turned a problem into a crisis.<br /><br />Yes, oil is running out, coal fired stations must shut under EU emissions rules, wind power is a joke, and the Government has been too supine to press ahead with the only sensible solution - nuclear power.<br /><br />When the lights go out let's remember it is the fault of Blair & Brown.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-390792330532430612009-08-16T14:05:51.581+01:002009-08-16T14:05:51.581+01:00Even when the politicians are finally forced to ma...Even when the politicians are finally forced to make a decision, will there be enough chartered and technician engineers to actually build new generating capacity? The number of electrical engineers graduating from UK universities is tiny in comparison with our European and Far East competitiors. But then engineers have always been regarded as very low in the pecking order, status and salary levels compared with lawyers, doctors, accountants, etc. How many MPs are graduate engineers for example? <br /><br />And with the schools in this country pushing students into easy options, such as media studies, in preference to physics and mathematics, the situation is going to get worse. <br /><br />"As you sow so shall you reap".Mines a Pintnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-695429742123310792009-08-16T13:45:48.451+01:002009-08-16T13:45:48.451+01:00"It's January 2015, you're David Came..."It's January 2015, you're David Cameron, you're Prime Minister and you're planning your re-election campaign in a few months."<br /><br />Er... January 2015 is definitely a tad late for planning a campaign now just three months away.<br /><br />More to the point - don't we all (well, most) expect such a good majority for Cameron next year that he'll feel well able to run again in 2014 not 2015?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-65429558158347956832009-08-16T12:29:21.952+01:002009-08-16T12:29:21.952+01:00Coal is the ONLY solution. Climate change, as a co...Coal is the ONLY solution. Climate change, as a consequence of man's activity, is a myth. Look at geological history (evidence-based): areas of Britain have been, both, semi tropical and covered by ice sheets of up to 1km in depth - long before humankind had evolved. It's cyclical. <br /><br />The current panic is driven by western-driven, geopolitical imperatives (ideologically-based).Mikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-15232679601010066702009-08-16T12:28:00.973+01:002009-08-16T12:28:00.973+01:00Glas to see "The Economist" catching up ...Glas to see "The Economist" catching up with me. I posted on Thursday, 23rd July, on the subject "The Electrification Of The Union." There you go then.Demetriushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-73439183787646013272009-08-16T11:45:12.639+01:002009-08-16T11:45:12.639+01:00Problem reaction solution.
Watch these globalist ...Problem reaction solution.<br /><br />Watch these globalist bastards, for they know exactly what they are doing. They just have no intention of spelling it out to you all, otherwise the public would finally start to understand who is really pulling our strings.<br /><br />They have caused a problem, and are about to get the inevitable reaction. While in the end, we will be given the exact same, so called solution, that they always intented to give us.<br /><br />Renewables are no more of an answer then any other type of energy, simply because the vast investment required in their production, instalation, and survicing is uneconomic and subject to perfectly vast amounts of interests payments. <br /><br />European and American production is being moved to China where the banking system/establishment can keep it under their entire control.<br /><br />Therefore cheap energy is no longer required. Therefore it WILL become incredibly expensive, whatever we do or say.<br /><br />The more energy costs, the more taxes the government gets. this is a win win situation for all of THEM. While being a lose lose situation for all of US.<br /><br />If it is any consolation then please ask yourself this question.<br /><br />WHEN WAS IT NOT SO?<br /><br />Answer<br /><br />NEVER.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-40876034578877665192009-08-16T11:16:54.296+01:002009-08-16T11:16:54.296+01:00Looks like Labour will leave nothing but scorched ...Looks like Labour will leave nothing but scorched earth upon their departure.<br /><br />As far as energy policy goes, reduction in demand has to be part of the solution, in the same way that reduction in spending has to be part of the solution to Labour's economic screw ups.Twighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16698620636313191152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-13950361645446440142009-08-16T11:11:42.816+01:002009-08-16T11:11:42.816+01:00I suspect the answer will be a long complicated mu...I suspect the answer will be a long complicated multi-faceted one - there is no single act or technology that will be enough (so that is why some politicians have turned a blind eye; it's too complicated.)<br /><br />So yes, we will need sensible renewable energy, sensible fossil fuel generation, sensible nuclear power, sensible micro-generation, and probaly a sensible(!) tax regime to encourage good housekeeping.<br /><br />And we will probably need sensible economies in consumption, including reduced street lighting, better home insulation, more careful use of power hungry industrial and domestic appliances.<br /><br />All of this will be needed as 'the answer'. No single item will be sufficient. But economies in consumption could start right <b>now</b>, deferring the need for new generation a little.<br /><br />Too sensible for a politician to propose?DiscoveredJoyshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05300239909689336895noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-77146166191690109352009-08-16T10:19:09.531+01:002009-08-16T10:19:09.531+01:00But this is nothing new. For the last several year...But this is nothing new. For the last several years the industry has been attempting to tell this ogvernment that unless they stop talking and start doing the light will go out.<br /><br />The EU has mandated the closure of vast swathes of our conventionally fueled stations as part of it's global warming scam. The nukes are due to be closed down to to end of life. If you turn off all the power stations there can be no power. What's so hard to understand??<br /><br />Meanwhile we've heard nothing from a string of increasingly inept energy ministers other than "report", "consultation", "debate" etc etc.<br /><br />Fantasy power from wind, sun or wave will not help as it a) isn't reliable (think of a still, overcast day in January during a neap tide) and so b) needs to be backed up one-for-one with conventional stations plus c) is generated from many many small sources rrather than a few large ones - the grid can't take this type of power, even if there was a enough of it.<br /><br />So the answer is build more (low emmission) nukes. We have no time left for more discussion or debate. <br /><br />Just to make matters worse, we (or rather the current inept Energy Minister) sold our own construction capacity last year for a song. So here's the plan:<br /><br />- Speak to the French, they have companies building standard reactors in sensible numbers (ie no one-offs or trials) and do a deal for 50 nukes.<br />- To avoid any NIMBY protests build a new nuke next to each old one. (that covers the old nukes going away)<br />- Then build another one next door to that (that covers the coal stations going away)<br />- Then another one next door to that (to reduce our dependence on Russian controlled gas supplies)<br /><br />As we've wasted the whole of Labours 12 year mismanagement of the energy sector we might have to fudge the closedown dates for some stations but at least we'd have power to read this blog!!JohnRShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07021101596935644363noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-76837507500505718152009-08-16T10:06:46.412+01:002009-08-16T10:06:46.412+01:00Something else to blame the Tories for then.
1. T...Something else to blame the Tories for then.<br /><br />1. Taking us into the EU on the most stupid of terms imaginable. <br /><br />2. Privatising the energy production and supply industries so that they could sell cheap energy to the EU (except for supply industries in precious Scotland).<br /><br />3. Ensuring foreign ownership of energy production and supply industries.<br /><br />Now we have Labour making England (not the UK) dependent for energy on the EU, Scotland and any other country in the world.<br /><br />Labour and Conservatives are united in their institutional Anglophobia.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-28117262983168684962009-08-16T09:53:44.915+01:002009-08-16T09:53:44.915+01:00Iain - interesting that you post this blog the day...Iain - interesting that you post this blog the day before the IOS story today on David Cameron's extensive free flights around the UK from rich businessmen, including a Mr Andrew Cook, an industrialist who, according to the IOS `boasted of how he helped to shape the Conservative Party's energy policy'.<br /><br />In particular Mr Cook is reported as saying to the Conservative party: <br /><br />'You need an energy policy because the lights will start going out in five years and this will be on your watch' (sounds spookily familiar to your own blog).<br /><br />The issue here is what influence are rich businessmen having on Conservative party policy. Are Mr Cameron's free flights in some way meant to leverage some business benefit for those wealthy people providing them?<br /><br />At the same time the Conservatives have recently been telling the public affairs industry not to use tried and trusted methods of influencing the conservative party, in PR Week (12 August) Douglas Carswell said he envisaged "a big Westminster story about the way some lobbyists seek to buy influence"<br /><br />Is this story part of that big westminster story? albeit he is not a` lobbyist' (and therefore not subject to lobbying regulation).<br /><br />When we have a wealthy businessman reported as `boasting' about shaping conservative energy policy, at the same time as providing free flights to the leader of the party, we have to ask how is it best to influence Tory policy? It seems that public affairs practitoners might be advised to approach the Tory front bench, offer free flights, or whatever else, (free private education for Gove?, free private health for Lansley?) and that way you can then boast of the influence you have had on tory policies.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-37886094551043434902009-08-16T09:21:46.546+01:002009-08-16T09:21:46.546+01:00We don't need an energy crisis to bring down t...We don't need an energy crisis to bring down the whole economic pack of cards. 12 years of Labour has done that job already.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-33182030232768038402009-08-16T09:07:48.227+01:002009-08-16T09:07:48.227+01:00Great News.
Perhaps they will switch all those li...Great News.<br /><br />Perhaps they will switch all those lights illuminating our Motorways and dual carriageways off and give us the opportuniuty to see the night sky.<br /><br />Last time I looked all vehicles have to be fitted with working lights that allow the driver to see the road ahead and be seen from behind anyway.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-5754217765860413172009-08-16T08:52:15.270+01:002009-08-16T08:52:15.270+01:00I see an opening in the market----selling generato...I see an opening in the market----selling generators!howard thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15284383246870212789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-85364938892650200262009-08-16T08:29:32.827+01:002009-08-16T08:29:32.827+01:00It took you lot long enough to see the bleeding ob...It took you lot long enough to see the bleeding obvious. Where were you when Miliband's energy policy was passed into law without so much as a whimper of protest about the eye-watering cost, let alone searching questions about the bogus science it's based on.<br /><br />CO2 IS NOT a pollutant.Gnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15473922379487381088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-51198280710874860362009-08-16T06:58:38.483+01:002009-08-16T06:58:38.483+01:00In the medium term the future is nuclear. I have b...In the medium term the future is nuclear. I have been buying shares on AIM/ASX listed explorers and developers based principally in Namibia and Botswana.<br /><br />TINASavonarolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07500688050397705993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-80720669758155730682009-08-16T01:38:15.717+01:002009-08-16T01:38:15.717+01:00We're also going to experience food and water ...We're also going to experience food and water shortages, but hey, ho. At least the Labour government managed to squeeze in a couple of million extra migrants, despite the obvious housing shortages as well. It's a fact, not a scare story. They've been told, but they won't listen. <br /><br />Keep 'em pouring in, though. It would be racist to even mention it until we are starving in the dark.<br /><br />Its time governments knew that they are supposed to look after the best interests of those who voted for them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com