Energy Matters Global and Domestic

[myglaren]

I have been paying £98 a month for that past few months, down from £130 this time last year.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Story of the day with just a touch of Englishization from the original American

Spoiler: show

A century from now, societies around the globe will be filled with people that live in solar powered homes and move around in autonomous cars, flying cars, and boats while communicating in mere seconds with human colonies on Europa and Mars.

One day, a person will comment to another person that just a few generations ago societies did not store energy, but rather burned carbon fuel in huge furnace factories to generate the heat that would then convert to the energy that people used in their homes and offices. In this system, people regularly ran out of energy which would trigger special furnace factories called peaker plants to burn yet more carbon fuel to offer more energy to the people.

Then, one day, someone sitting on the toilet thought: “Why don’t we focus a bit more on storing energy to use on those days when there is outsized demand for energy?” So, societies started to build more batteries to store energy…and now they are everywhere and we no longer have things called “blackouts” where people used up all the energy.

From a commenter on this article

A new giant Tesla Megapack project is under construction in the UK
(where? Clay Tye site near the M25 in Essex)

For a less TESLA-centric coverage this is the press release from the developers a partnership between Knaresborough's Harmony Energy and Saudi Arabia's Abdul Latif Jameel Energy.

Abdul Latif Jameel Energy's FRV and Harmony Energy launch UK's largest-battery storage project with Tesla Megapack in mission to decarbonize Britain's energy grid

I guess as well as their laudable altruistic mission, their investors must foresee lucrative revenue streams from such developments.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

There has been a bit of a change recently even from the position of BP spouted in a couple of Video's from 2019.
Maybe its just posturing, but maybe its the market and investors.

Still after watching Newsnight last night and a little piece they did on Nigeria, fragile economies and big populations in the developing world are sustained by fossil fuels.

Spencer Dale, BP Chief Economist, from just a couple of years ago was quite bullish about increasing populations, and development sustaining their oil and gas sideline for years into the future, and moving from 5M to 300 Million Electric Cars by 2040 will hardly make a dent in oil and gas demand.

I think BP Energy 2021, would shy away from Spencer Dale's BP 2019 complacency in public, but maybe still delight in "the impact on oil demand and emissions being really quite small" by 2040 due to population increases and development sustaining their oil and gas sideline. edit...new CEO February 2020 different approach, decent from the Horses mouth video here viewtopic.php?p=697147#p697147

and what is BP's take on electric cars?

At the end of this Spencer Dale compliments his two illustrators work....

"I do like this, the journey from 5 million electric cars to 300 million electric cars.....but impact on oil demand and emissions really quite small...you have captured it perfectly! Really great job. Thank you"

Episode 2 Video starts at the quote!

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

So whats BP up to 2021

Delighting in Business as usual, but with a bit of wind and solar on the end!



Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

The main business of any company is to make money, BP like the rest will go where the money takes them be it oil or electric, they won't stick with oil just for the sake of it if the market goes into decline.

[NewcastleFalcon]

This is a decent 12 minutes or so in my opinion, and it's from the BP CEO and he makes some good points. Towards the end the surprising revelation is that they plan to shrink their oil and gas business by 40% by 2030. (vid time 8.34)



Regards Neil

[Rabbiddog]

We are going to see record Energy bills this year, Unfortunately having a 'green' biased energy policy costs money.

Wholesale electricity prices in the UK have risen from £50/Mwh in March 2021 to £130/Mwh today.

Wholesale gas prices in the Uk have risen from 42p/therm in March 2021 to 158p/therm today (peaked at 177p/therm).

The national grid has had to call on what coal fired units we have left in the UK to cover the shortfall in supply to the grid, it has been very tight this last week.

[myglaren]

Not helped by the power station closed after a fire

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ply-crunch

[white exec]

Similar spiralling of electricity prices here in Spain. Wholesale price hit a record of €188/MWh yesterday, jumping 9% in one day, apparently.

The price on the wholesale market here is arrived at by auction (!) involving the electricity producers and the electricity suppliers/sellers. Unfortunately, these can be one and the same companies, with the largest ones (Endesa, Iberdrola) both producing and retailing the product. So win-win for them.

The government have rumbled this, and are embarking on a massive on-going windfall tax on the companies' profits. The nuclear industry here, presumably largely unaffected by all this, have decided not to be left out, and have wound up their prices too, with an attendant massive increase in profits. After government complaints, they have hinted that they may not be able to carry on operating if action is taken, but have been reminded that their operating licence includes a legal obligation to provide operation for the 10-year duration of the licence.

Spain manages to generate around 45% of its electricity from renewables (wind, solar...), which is quite some achievement. However, the buy-in tarrifs for solar panel consumers are designed to be discouraging. The suppliers are hell-bent on selling the stuff at high prices, not economising on generating capacity, or encouraging green end-users.

To lessen the impact of the price increases (and a simultaneous roll-out of an obligatory hours-differentiated tariff for all consumers), the Spanish government has slashed the IVA (VAT) rate from the previous 21% to 10%. A good thing, and brings it to something like the EU average, but a pity the public exchequer has had to take the hit.

The energy market is as broken here as it is in the UK, and for pretty much the same reasons, with the illusion of competition between providers and the attendant nonsense of 'switching'. In Spain, the result of a researched switch can be as little as a 2% saving on the bills.

[Peter.N.]

I think I will have to consider breaking my generator out, on red diesel I can make it cheaper than buying it!

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

Misquoted from here and added to

A century from now, societies around the globe will be filled with people that live in solar powered homes, power grids powered by wind and solar, massive and also community-sized, and move around in autonomous cars, flying cars, and boats while communicating in mere seconds with human colonies on Europa and Mars.

One day, a person will comment to another person that just a few generations ago societies did not store energy, but rather burned carbon fuel in huge furnace factories to generate the heat that would then convert to the energy that people used in their homes and offices. In this system, people regularly ran out of energy which would trigger special furnace factories called peaker plants to burn yet more carbon fuel to offer more energy to the people. Whenever a crisis of supply or a peak in demand occurred the price of electricity would temporarily rocket and the poor consumer would fall into fuel-poverty as inefficient energy companies clawed back their costs, to safeguard their profits.

Then, one day, someone sitting on the toilet thought: “Why don’t we focus a bit more on storing energy to use on those days when there is outsized demand for energy, or there is a problem which interrupts supply?” So, societies started to build more batteries to store energy…and now they are everywhere and we no longer have things called “blackouts” where people used up all the energy.....or face huge price hikes when a cable catches fire and can't be fixed for 6 months.

Just a thought...dont bother fixing the cable, get on the phone to Elon, say we have a crisis which cant be fixed until next March , sell it on publicity, and get a few grid storage "megapacks" dropped in and Bob's your uncle.

Regards Neil
.

[Rabbiddog]

It's been a perfect storm lately with increased demand, and lack of supply due to plant outages (common over the summer),and weeks of little wind and cloudy days where wind turbines and solar are ineffective.
Ironically I'm now stocking up on Coal and wood for the log burner over the winter which is hardly environmentally friendly compared to my gas fired boiler!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Well the energy crisis is all over the news, not just leccy but gas in on the act too. Who benefits from the high price of gas?

The gas producers/suppliers maybe? Has all of a sudden the gas able to be produced from existing fields dramatically reduced due to a catastrophy at all existing production sites? or are all sites shut down for maintenance at the same time. Is September in the Northern hemisphere the peak time for gas use. Hardly, our central heating is off for a start

Have any of the producers deliberately choked back supply to force the price up and precipitate the "September crisis" , and provide gentle reminder that burning fossil fuels is indispensable.

Heres a bit from the Guardian, no doubt there will be plenty of analysis of the "whys" coming up. One or two suggestions get a mention here.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ni ... y-building

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

I take most of what's written in the Guardian with a pinch of salt, well not only the Guardian all newspapers.

[NewcastleFalcon]

I take most of what's written in the Guardian with a pinch of salt, well not only the Guardian all newspapers.

I rejected the BBC piece seeing as it was written by Simon Jack in whom I have little confidence after his appalling performance on University Challenge alumni Christmas special

I thought the Guardian piece was short, made some good points, and didn't go overboard. How many of us watch global wholesale gas prices and have any idea about major fluctuations on the basis of speculation; temporary problems of supply or over-demand; or an actual crisis where there is not enough gas to satisfy demand long-term.

Similar to the electricity story...where is the storage to cope with a temporary crisis? Illustrates the present unreadyness of grids both gas and electricity to react to such fluctuations.

In the end, high prices encourage more supply and dampen demand. Long term if the demand for gas doesnt plummet, our CO2 emissions are heading skywards literally.

Regards Neil