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Blackouts could hit Britain by 2015, says National Grid chief

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    Blackouts could hit Britain by 2015, says National Grid chief

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...rid-chief.html

    Blackouts could become a regular occurrence unless the Government ensures more power stations are built, the head of National Grid has said.

    Steve Holliday, the company's chief executive, said that Britain faces a severe shortage in power generation due to crumbling coal and nuclear plants being taken out of service.

    He said that unless the Government intervenes to ensure £100 billion investment in new stations, there will not be enough generation to meet demand by 2015, meaning power outages would result.

    "We are OK for a period of time ... but when you go out to the medium term you can begin to see there is not enough collective generation being built in the UK," Mr Holliday told The Times. "We will need to watch that very carefully over the next 18 months to ensure that window gets shut."

    He added that the Government must offer better incentives for companies to build stations. "What is happening that people are not wanting to build enough power stations?" he said. "The Government has an obligation to make sure that the markets are delivering. You can't afford for it to fail."

    While Mr Holliday believes Government needs to persuade them to build more plants, power companies face opposition to their intention to expand in Britain.

    Climate activists have launched protests against plans to build new coal-fired power stations.

    In August 1,000 protesters targetted the coal- and oil-fired Kingsnorth power station in Kent to protest at plans by the German-based company E.On to demolish the building and construct Britain's first new coal power station for 34 years.

    Last week a lone activist broke in and crashed a giant turbine at Kingsnorth, causing all power from the station to be lost for four hours.

    Another barrier to the expansion of traditional power production is the fact that Britain has committed itself to ambitious European Union targets to have 20 per cent of all energy generated from renewable sources - such as wind and solar power - by 2020.

    Ofgem, the energy industry watchdog, said last week it would consider new incentives for the development of renewable energy schemes, including offering better returns for companies that build grid connections serving remote areas and anticipating future rises in demand.

    Later on Monday, the European Commission is expected to report on whether the French company EDF should be allowed to buy up Britain's nuclear industry for £12.4 billion.

    The company intends to take over British Energy and use its resources as a launchpad from which to build a new generation of nuclear plants in Britain.

    =================================

    In other news : the sky could fall in on our heads.

    No point in taking a risk on energy running out : more nuclear power stations needed.

    #2
    This is old news as this problem was mentioned over a year ago. Yet another failure of our wonderful government, who think windpower is the answer to everything.

    Comment


      #3
      If we were in the Eurozone this wouldn't happen.

      AtW
      ǝןqqıʍ

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Cyberman View Post
        This is old news as this problem was mentioned over a year ago. Yet another failure of our wonderful government, who think windpower is the answer to everything.
        Wind power is now producing about 2.7% of the energy needs of the Netherlands. It's only quite recently been introduced but has grown quickly. The are enormous areas of the North Sea which can be used for wind energy, and which could potentially provide about a quarter to a third of the energy requirement of Britain, NL, Denmark and Belgium. It’s not the answer on it’s own, but is very useful as part of a strategy for diverse energy sources which could include wave, gas, solar, nuclear. It’s only by diversifying the sources of electricity that we can really avoid the situation of becoming too dependent on Russia or other unrelieable regimes for energy supplies.
        And what exactly is wrong with an "ad hominem" argument? Dodgy Agent, 16-5-2014

        Comment


          #5
          Bah, 2015 is ages away, profit today is what counts. Makes me filthy rich it does. Who cares if chavs get cold when I'm safely tucked away in my foreign bolt hole counting my loot.

          -- A director / shareholder

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Cyberman View Post
            This is old news as this problem was mentioned over a year ago. Yet another failure of our wonderful government, who think windpower is the answer to everything.
            Wind doesn't blow all the time. Except in the house of commons.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by BrilloPad View Post
              Wind doesn't blow all the time. Except in the house of commons.
              NO, but it blows quite often in the North Sea and the north Atlantic; often enough to make wind energy a feasible business proposition in the long term. Wave and tidal energy has a lot of potential too, and tides are continual and predictable. Perhaps the trouble for wind energy is the inability to store electricity effectively and the fact you can't switch in on and off like a generator; anyone who finds a way around these problems is going to get very rich.

              But perhaps the lesson from this warning is that you can't rely too heavily on one source of energy. Coal and oil are polluting, and subject to stormy politics. Nuclear scares the tulip of people, rightly or wrongly, and involves expensive disposal of waste. Wind and solar are rather dependent on the weather. That's why you need a combination of all these things; risk spreading.
              And what exactly is wrong with an "ad hominem" argument? Dodgy Agent, 16-5-2014

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Mich the Tester View Post
                Perhaps the trouble for wind energy is the inability to store electricity effectively
                It's not a problem if you use it to split water into hydrogen or some other means of "storing" it.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by AtW View Post
                  It's not a problem if you use it to split water into hydrogen or some other means of "storing" it.
                  Yep, true. But do people want big hydrogen tanks all over the place?
                  And what exactly is wrong with an "ad hominem" argument? Dodgy Agent, 16-5-2014

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Mich the Tester View Post
                    Yep, true. But do people want big hydrogen tanks all over the place?
                    Is Hydrogen explosive? Would they make good terrorist targets?

                    Comment

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