News1 min ago
The End Of Coal Power?
Yesterday for the first time , no electricity at all was generated by coal fired power stations.
Coal is now only to be used as a emergency back up fuel if no 'Biomass' is available.
This site shows how much power the UK is using and producing, and how it is produced.It is updated every 15 minutes. ( watch the solar power drop as the Sun goes down)
http://
Not sure how good this is as Biomass (made from waste wood, mainly sawmill waste) has to be imported from Canada as we do not have nearly enough here in the UK.
Coal is now only to be used as a emergency back up fuel if no 'Biomass' is available.
This site shows how much power the UK is using and producing, and how it is produced.It is updated every 15 minutes. ( watch the solar power drop as the Sun goes down)
http://
Not sure how good this is as Biomass (made from waste wood, mainly sawmill waste) has to be imported from Canada as we do not have nearly enough here in the UK.
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Then the policy needs changing, Eddie. Biomass theory is based on a false premise.
Generally speaking wood produces 12% more CO2 than coal (per unit of electricity generated) because it is less efficient. But a couple of examples of wanton idiocy that infests the make-believe world of politicians are worth a mention.
First of all, Tilbury power stations. Tilbury B power station (along with its smaller sister Tilbury A) lies idle. It is (well at least was, but probably not now) a perfectly serviceable 1500Mw power plant. Until 2011 it worked perfectly well burning coal which was delivered by ship using the adjacent river Thames. In 2011 conversion work began to turn it into a 750Mw (note the halving in capacity) plant to burn so-called biomass. In July 2013 the conversion was halted due to difficulty in converting and financing the plant. It was mothballed after failing to receive a government grant. So both plants now lie idle (oil-burning Tilbury A was decommissioned in the 1980s) where there was capacity to provide 80% of the electricity needs of Essex. There are dozens of examples like this across the UK.
Then to the fiasco that is Drax (which I mentioned earlier). Drax was the largest, cleanest, most efficient coal fired plant in Europe. Because of the government’s nonsensical “carbon tax” it was forced to convert half of its furnaces to biomass. So “green” was biomass said to be that the government offered (very kind of them) 2.5 times the price for electricity from biomass than that from coal. The calculations used by the government to support the case ignored the emissions from burning the wood itself (which are greater than coal - see above), calculating only those from harvesting, processing and transporting the stuff. The sums also included - ludicrously - the benefits provided by the new saplings planted to replace the felled mature trees. In 2015 Drax burned some 6m tonnes of wood. This was one third of all the wood pellets traded globally in that year and more wood than the entire UK produced. Most irritating of all is the fact that, now the calculations have been made properly, not only is Drax incurring huge costs which fall on customers and the taxpayer (£450m in 2015) but the conversion has actually seen CO2 emissions rise just rom the station itself, even ignoring the processing and transport effects. As well as this huge ecological problems are building up in the areas which are being deforested because, incredible as it may seem, the flora and fauna displaced by the tree felling cannot wait 150 to 200 years for the new saplings to provide them with their needs.
Politicians need to free themselves from the grip of the total madness that is the “green” energy lobby. They need to make a few investigations themselves, do a few sums and stop relying on "experts" (usually with vested interests) to mislead them. To celebrate because the country managed for a day without burning coal without considering what was done instead is utter folly.
Generally speaking wood produces 12% more CO2 than coal (per unit of electricity generated) because it is less efficient. But a couple of examples of wanton idiocy that infests the make-believe world of politicians are worth a mention.
First of all, Tilbury power stations. Tilbury B power station (along with its smaller sister Tilbury A) lies idle. It is (well at least was, but probably not now) a perfectly serviceable 1500Mw power plant. Until 2011 it worked perfectly well burning coal which was delivered by ship using the adjacent river Thames. In 2011 conversion work began to turn it into a 750Mw (note the halving in capacity) plant to burn so-called biomass. In July 2013 the conversion was halted due to difficulty in converting and financing the plant. It was mothballed after failing to receive a government grant. So both plants now lie idle (oil-burning Tilbury A was decommissioned in the 1980s) where there was capacity to provide 80% of the electricity needs of Essex. There are dozens of examples like this across the UK.
Then to the fiasco that is Drax (which I mentioned earlier). Drax was the largest, cleanest, most efficient coal fired plant in Europe. Because of the government’s nonsensical “carbon tax” it was forced to convert half of its furnaces to biomass. So “green” was biomass said to be that the government offered (very kind of them) 2.5 times the price for electricity from biomass than that from coal. The calculations used by the government to support the case ignored the emissions from burning the wood itself (which are greater than coal - see above), calculating only those from harvesting, processing and transporting the stuff. The sums also included - ludicrously - the benefits provided by the new saplings planted to replace the felled mature trees. In 2015 Drax burned some 6m tonnes of wood. This was one third of all the wood pellets traded globally in that year and more wood than the entire UK produced. Most irritating of all is the fact that, now the calculations have been made properly, not only is Drax incurring huge costs which fall on customers and the taxpayer (£450m in 2015) but the conversion has actually seen CO2 emissions rise just rom the station itself, even ignoring the processing and transport effects. As well as this huge ecological problems are building up in the areas which are being deforested because, incredible as it may seem, the flora and fauna displaced by the tree felling cannot wait 150 to 200 years for the new saplings to provide them with their needs.
Politicians need to free themselves from the grip of the total madness that is the “green” energy lobby. They need to make a few investigations themselves, do a few sums and stop relying on "experts" (usually with vested interests) to mislead them. To celebrate because the country managed for a day without burning coal without considering what was done instead is utter folly.
^ Again I agree 100% . I still say our failure to continue with Nuclear power is the root cause.
At this exact moment France is producing over 90% of it's electricity from Nuclear, (see the Grid watch sites I posted the links to) against less than 24% for the UK. The French cost per unit produced must be a small % of the cost in the UK !
At this exact moment France is producing over 90% of it's electricity from Nuclear, (see the Grid watch sites I posted the links to) against less than 24% for the UK. The French cost per unit produced must be a small % of the cost in the UK !
