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Monday, May 10, 2010

A SILLY COMPROMISE TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON WITH A "LOW CARBON ECONOMY"

So what happens if the LudDims & Conservatives go for the Luddite anti-nuclear, windmillery "low carbon economy" that Cameron gave in his first offer. Well basically our electricity prices keep going through the roof & even worse, Britain ceases to be able to produce enough electricity to keep the lights on. Though we are spending £10s of billions on wind it only provides 0.3% of our electricity & is thus totally useless [see generation by fuel type table]

Here are figures of energy use/GNP internationally. This is similar to the SNEK figures I previously produced except that they showed simply electricity usage whereas this is less specific covering all energy use & with the ratio reversed.
World 212.9
Albania 158.2
Algeria 176.8
Angola 322.6
Argentina 138.6
Armenia 191.1
Australia 208.3
Austria 139.1
Azerbaijan 437.2
Bahrain 559.4
Bangladesh 97.9
Belarus 458.9
Belgium 205.5
Benin 301.3
Bolivia 205.8
Bosnia and Herzegovina 189
Botswana 120.3
Brazil 146.1
Bulgaria 354.7
Cameroon 222.8
Canada 293.2
Côte d'Ivoire 265.3
Chile 166.7
China 231.3
Colombia 98.1
Congo 30.5
Democratic Republic of the Congo 4746.3
Costa Rica 101.2
Croatia 179.3
Cyprus 159.6
Czech Republic 254.4
Denmark 133.2
Dominican Republic 136.2
Ecuador 221.4
Egypt 201.4
El Salvador 146.4
Eritrea 215
Estonia 295.9
Ethiopia 389.9
Finland 269.1
France 170.5
Gabon 204.5
Georgia 244.3
Germany 163.9
Ghana 198.7
Greece 137.8
Guatemala 153.3
Haiti 159.4
Honduras 202.3
Hong Kong 91.4
Hungary 178.4
Iceland 401.4
India 189.5
Indonesia 239.3
Iran 316.1
Ireland 107.6
Israel 141.3
Italy 122.8
Jamaica 401.1
Japan 154
Jordan 253.1
Kazakhstan 539
Kenya 467.6
South Korea 238.2
Kuwait 481
Kyrgyzstan 319.3
Latvia 189.6
Lebanon 327
Lithuania 233.7
Luxembourg 153.7
Macedonia 222.1
Malaysia 257.5
Malta 130.7
Mexico 180.3
Moldova 528
Morocco 96.4
Mozambique 409
Namibia 102
Nepal 248.1
Netherlands 172.4
New Zealand 206.4
Nicaragua 181.9
Nigeria 776.6
Norway 172.2
Oman 361.6
Pakistan 236.1
Panama 132.3
Paraguay 155.9
Peru 86.7
Philippines 127.4
Poland 212.2
Portugal 138.2
Romania 248.7
Russian Federation 519
Saudi Arabia 448
Senegal 155.1
Singapore 213.8
Slovakia 273.4
Slovenia 190.2
South Africa 265.1
Spain 142.5
Sri Lanka 120.8
Sudan 266.7
Sweden 216.9
Switzerland 122.3
Syria 294.3
Tajikistan 486.3
Tanzania 783.5
Thailand 199.1
Togo 318.2
Trinidad and Tobago 766.2
Tunisia 123.3
Turkey 167.1
Ukraine 565.9
United Arab Emirates 481.3
United Kingdom 141.2
United States 221.7
Uruguay 94.5
Uzbekistan 1253
Venezuela 434.2
Viet Nam 227.3
Yemen 335.9
Zambia 729.4
Zimbabwe 374.6

This shows that UK energy use already puts us near the bottom of energy users ahead only of Argentina, Austria, Bangladesh, Colombia, Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Namibia, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Switzerland, Tunisia & Uruguay. Apart from Hong Kong which, being a city state, has less diffuse energy needs that is an unprepossessing crowd & the pure electricity rather than energy figures measured by SNEK remove Austria, Italy & Switzerland, the most successful of them.

We need to stop the lights going out at almost any cost. Nuclear power would, by a long way, be the option chosen by any sane government but since all our main political parties are driven by insane ideological Luddite parasites we need another option that will at least minimise the increase in 25,000 deaths fuel poverty already causes unnecessarily annually.

I have previously suggested the world build a High Voltage Direct Current International Grid.

Doing it on a smaller scale we could just build 2 or 3 new interconnectors. We already have one to France which provides 5% of UK electricity & is all that is keeping the lights on in Britain.

This shows Europe's already existing interconnectors (red), under construction (green) & proposed (blue dotted)

So lets get on with building them. Better yet extend the Norwegian one to Russia which, producing 2.5 times the world average of energy to GNP & 4 times what we do would clearly be able to sell it to us at a competitive rate.

As I say buying foreign electricity, largely nuclear generated if from France, Sweden or Russia, is not remotely as sensible as making our own but it is infinitely more sensible than letting the lights go out.

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Comments:
Perhaps on this issue, more than any other, there is an almost complete detachment from reality in the political classes. Cursory examination of the facts shows us that wind can't cover the base load due to unreliability. Yet, the politicos seem simply unable to understand this, or unwilling to grasp the nettle. I really don't know which it is, are they that stupid, or that cynical? Either way, my new homes will hence forth have dielse generators installed and if you see one house glowing in the darkness, you will know that is a Milvian Home, but it's a sad state of affairs. If they can't solve a simple issue like this, what hope for the complex stuff?
 
Keeping the lights on doesn't even need government action.

All that is required is for the government to cease preventing the free market from building nuclear plants.

Cynically I think that may be why they don't - an answer which doesn't require the existence of big government isn't one acceptable to its leaders.
 
Keeping the lights on doesn't even need government action.

All that is required is for the government to cease preventing the free market from building nuclear plants.

Cynically I think that may be why they don't - an answer which doesn't require the existence of big government isn't one acceptable to its leaders.
 
O/T but The Labour/Lib dem coalition is a dead letter surely because they need the SNP and Plaid Cymru to get to 324 (which is a majority since Sinn Fein don't take their seats and they have five). This must be a nonsense when you consider...

1. Some unknown person becomes PM but we know he or she is unelected, again (Go Hattie btw)
2. Serious constitutional changes without reference to us, again
3. Propping up Labour would be electorally disasterous surely
4. A 4-way coalition is so unstable and I don't think the Lib Dems can be delivered en masse for any period of time as they are basically amateurs

So this must just be a negotiating point, I can't believe it's remotely serious
 
You have been proven right on this one Stuart.
 
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