GB Energy

[Exfarmer]

Watching Miliband this morning preaching about GB energy I am reminded of several other State owned Business's which are highly successful and cannot for the life of me understand why this brilliant scheme has not been thought before.
Hopefully they will be calling on the expertise deployed at companies such as Network Rail to show us and the world how the state can make a total cock up of keeping the lights on. It would be hilarious if it were not so sad.

 

[surreyhillsjacob]

Once upon a time, we had the Green Investment Bank which was sold by the government to Macquaire !

 

[spark plug]

With the last coal powered power station due to close in September, two of the remaining five nuclear plants due to close in 2026 and a further two in 2028. When it comes to baseline energy production on a cold still winter night we don’t have a hope and putting faith in GB energy seems like insanity.

 

[surreyhillsjacob]

Great British Energy set to develop green power plants across the UK nations and at small to large scale | New Power

www.newpower.info

not really clear what the business plan is, how it will make money or who will benifit

 

[DaveGrohl]

Great British Energy set to develop green power plants across the UK nations and at small to large scale | New Power

www.newpower.info

not really clear what the business plan is, how it will make money or who will benifit

Why am I reading that and thinking it’s a vehicle for pissing money up the wall?

 

[teslacoils]

Its a tricky ask,to balance production with profitability. Oversupply, prices down for public, but no profit for reinvestment. At least it should stop all the £££ flowing to the Cayman Islands.

 

[Welderloon]

Why the obsession with wind power? Proper Hydro schemes with huge reservoirs like Norway would make more sense, Storing fresh water & constantly generating power 24/7, you can even pump the water back up & use it again................ very soon fresh water will be sought after.

Short sighted rockets the lot of them

 

[Exfarmer]

Why the obsession with wind power? Proper Hydro schemes with huge reservoirs like Norway would make more sense, Storing fresh water & constantly generating power 24/7, you can even pump the water back up & use it again................ very soon fresh water will be sought after.

Short sighted rockets the lot of them

Perhaps you ought to take a little look at geography. Hydro requires proper mountains and valleys where no one lives. then dam the valley and hey presto hydro power. Sadly in the UK we have neither of these, well very few and there is always some Scot/Welsh/possibly a rare English nutter who will insist that they are not leaving the land of their fathers, just to give cheap power to those townies

 

[spark plug]

I agree, hydro although a very good solution, is a niche in the UK but where the UK does have great potential is hydro. In places like the seven estuary. But the environmentalists want to have there cake and eat it, so it looks like the only way is backwards.

 

[Welderloon]

Perhaps you ought to take a little look at geography. Hydro requires proper mountains and valleys where no one lives. then dam the valley and hey presto hydro power. Sadly in the UK we have neither of these, well very few and there is always some Scot/Welsh/possibly a rare English nutter who will insist that they are not leaving the land of their fathers, just to give cheap power to those townies

Scotland has multiple options for hydro, specifically the Grampians & Southern section of the Cairngorms.
As it stands we have Pitlochry while having another 20 options in relatively close proximity.
The only blockers on this are the loony mickey mouse SNP & whoever is getting the back handers for the 'wind revolution'
One thing can be sure none of the choices will ever produce cheap power for the consumer

 

[renewablejohn]

Perhaps you ought to take a little look at geography. Hydro requires proper mountains and valleys where no one lives. then dam the valley and hey presto hydro power. Sadly in the UK we have neither of these, well very few and there is always some Scot/Welsh/possibly a rare English nutter who will insist that they are not leaving the land of their fathers, just to give cheap power to those townies

Thats just an Urban myth. There is quite sufficient hydro potential to power the whole of the UK. You dont actually need mountains to generate electric.

 

[Exfarmer]

Thats just an Urban myth. There is quite sufficient hydro potential to power the whole of the UK. You dont actually need mountains to generate electric.

Perhaps you would like to back this claim up with a few facts and figures, if you are including tidal power i would agree, but otherwise it is dream land

 

[renewablejohn]

Perhaps you would like to back this claim up with a few facts and figures, if you are including tidal power i would agree, but otherwise it is dream land

Of course I am including tidal. Just a tidal barrier on the Severn would provide 8% of UK electric and thats without any contribution from run of river generation all the way along its length and tributaries. Then consider all the other major rivers and it becomes easily achievable.

 

[teslacoils]

Of course I am including tidal. Just a tidal barrier on the Severn would provide 8% of UK electric and thats without any contribution from run of river generation all the way along its length and tributaries. Then consider all the other major rivers and it becomes easily achievable.

Indeed. Better still would be to go to a more easterly point and drop the generation capacity, but include port upgrades, and road and rail crossings.

However, as this kind of thing has already been considered for at least 100 years, and would need to get over the multiple sssi and protected nature sites, friends of the earth, rspb etc, then you can double the costs and add another 50 years of public consultation.

Great idea though. As is damming and reclaiming the Wash.

 

[Hilly]

Thats just an Urban myth. There is quite sufficient hydro potential to power the whole of the UK. You dont actually need mountains to generate electric.

We so should be using hydro makes much much more sense than bloody wind

 

[Hilly]

Of course I am including tidal. Just a tidal barrier on the Severn would provide 8% of UK electric and thats without any contribution from run of river generation all the way along its length and tributaries. Then consider all the other major rivers and it becomes easily achievable.

Tis why towns citys are in river banks after all .

 

[Exfarmer]

Of course I am including tidal. Just a tidal barrier on the Severn would provide 8% of UK electric and thats without any contribution from run of river generation all the way along its length and tributaries. Then consider all the other major rivers and it becomes easily achievable.

I think also you are conflating tidal outflow and total fall from source. There is absolutely no way that uk rivers could supply our total benergydemands even with auger generation from source to sea

 

[BrianV]

We so should be using hydro makes much much more sense than bloody wind

Should be using all the excess wind & solar power generation to pump water up to a reservoir so as to provide hydro power during the night instead of turning windmills etc off when too much power is being generated.

 

[Exfarmer]

Should be using all the excess wind & solar power generation to pump water up to a reservoir so as to provide hydro power during the night instead of turning windmills etc off when too much power is being generated.

It is certainly a good idea and used i think by 9 reservoirs in the UK but It is only 30% efficient, with huge power losses

 

[BrianV]

It is certainly a good idea and used i think by 9 reservoirs in the UK but It is only 30% efficient, with huge power losses

No worse than paying energy producers to stand down.