But the poor record at the Times – where more than half of its EV coverage contained misleading statements – is particularly notable No doubt entirely coincidentally, Times editorials on EVs have been v hostile of late www.carbonbrief.org/... 3/4
Energy and transitioning from fossil fuels. Complex issues I try to shine a light on. Ex-UKAEA and Met Office. Occasionally politics Exeter, UK
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But the poor record at the Times – where more than half of its EV coverage contained misleading statements – is particularly notable No doubt entirely coincidentally, Times editorials on EVs have been v hostile of late www.carbonbrief.org/... 3/4
Dan's speculation really isn't adding value
Well you'd need to leave the ECHR; article 1 "right to peaceful enjoyment of property"
That's effectively nationalising the gas power station fleet. That would cost tens of billions whether done directly or through compensation. Saying "it's this or you don't get market access" would never get through the courts. It would also damage investor confidence towards the UK. ✖️ from me
Currently all CCGTs (gas-fired power stations) are privately owned and operated. Restricting their ability to participate in the GB market unless they entered into a RAB arrangement would – rightly – never get through the courts.
I can't see how this doesn't amount to nationalising the CCGT fleet – which would cost tens of billions. It might cut bills but it would put up taxes!
Worth noting that the proposed EU 2040 target – a 90% reduction on 1990 emissions – is tougher than what the Seventh Carbon Budget is for us for 2040; that's more like an 85% reduction
A badly written article. Trying to decode it, it looks like the 2040 target could be set by a qualified majority vote of the Environment Council. Some countries don't want to hold said vote yet, but Denmark can go ahead with the vote regardless. I guess they won't if they think they'll lose though.
When it exists I guess
Interesting that the biggest poll-moving event was the local elections!
Isn't this just the natural result of Labour and the Conservatives only talking about Reform's home turf?
Four in five households don't know about tariffs that offer lower prices outside of peak hours, and two in five wouldn't switch anyway
And finally the email containing my energy statement was free of campaigning by Octopus
August was kinder to me than I thought it would be
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I’ve learned so much from listening to In Our Time. Obviously, I’ve forgotten it all immediately, but that’s not the point.
You might have a point if their approach was working (although really Reform's voters are almost entirely ex-Tories – the Conservatives are finished), but it isn't bsky.app/profile/elec...
Madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome...
And now the Greens have a leader who is going to make the case for voting for them loudly and clearly. The path Labour is following isn't working and can't work. Will they change course or founder? I suspect the latter...
It's very hard to see how voters who have switched to parties to the left of Labour would "come back" to Labour when the party is actively pursuing right-wing policies. To "stop Reform"? Maybe. Or maybe people will just vote for the party they like. Greens were second to Labour in 40 seats...
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No 10 is obsessed with the ~700,000 GE2024 Lab voters who would now vote Reform. Meanwhile ~1.8M previously Lab voters say they would now vote Green or Lib Dem in a general election. No.10 thinks they would "come back" to the party in the actuality. That's one hell of a presumption.
I distantly remember this from university (we visited the newly-built but unopened A55); there should basically be balancing ponds and French drains to deal with all but the heaviest rainfall. Effectively the ground filters the nasties
It really isn't.
I mean, who would? Rayner seems to have been trying to do right by her son under very difficult circumstances while also being Deputy PM. Personally I'm impressed with her public service and devotion to her family. The idea that she's done "bad" here is nuts.
More general information on the erosion and then cracking of the graphite blocks which the cores of the AGRs are made of. Apart from that the AGR is a very safe design; inherently safer than PWRs, just ultimately more expensive MWh for MWh www.onr.org.uk/our-work/wha...
www.onr.org.uk/our-expertis... January 2025
Life extension of the elderly AGR reactors is not a done deal; EDR have to demonstrate safety to Office for Nuclear Regulation: "In recent inspections the actual core degradation was at the high end of expectations, which has undermined confidence in EDF’s ability to respect safety case limits."
"In recent inspections the actual core degradation was at the high end of expectations, which has undermined confidence in EDF’s ability to respect safety case limits." www.onr.org.uk/our-expertis...
They are for sure but they're also unquestionably pushing the limit, quite possibly taking a gamble on funding the work when previously they felt it wasn't worth it (Hinkley B)
Road run-off is really nasty and it goes straight into our rivers. National Highways should be doing more to prevent this and the Environment Agency should be making sure that they do (EA is currently giving NH a free pass on the issue)
Not a done deal though – it's very possible they won't get the safety cases past ONR
If it's a single turbine it'll be a farm turbine and either broken or self-protecting if it's proper windy. There's quite a few nice 50 kW class turbines in the SW but it was a niche market and they're not made anymore; spare parts are scarce. They aren't controlled by the grid – too small
Wow that's late. I wonder what the latest ever autumn budget was. Going be sarcastic "Labour's gift got Christmas" headlines
Damn they need more export! The single new offshore HVDC link to France is just not enough
While raising the amount of money we need for public services, which is higher than ever because people are getting older and sicker, we have to tackle climate change, and sadly we do need to defend ourselves from those who seek to harm us
💯. Right now tax revenue is too low to support the level of public services we need (the other half of the social contract). It's not hard to change taxation so it's more efficient (minimises any -ve impact on growth), less distortionary (people make better choices), and more progressive (fairer)
"Ms Badenoch is right that the North Sea will be the cornerstone of UK's energy future, but what happens above the surface will be more consequential than what lies beneath "Wind power is already the engine room of the grid, providing 30% of UK's electricity last year" news.sky.com/story/drill-...
If Britain is being singled-out in the bond markets, it's not because we have fiscal rules judged against forecasts
Loads of countries (all?) in the euro zone have fiscal rules and official national forecasters. Lots of other countries have rules & forecasts too. Britain is not alone in this – far from it
Indeed. That's why it was refreshing that Rajan opened the interview with facts; very unusual for the BBC!
Not even returning to previous spending levels when demand for public services – older sicker population, increased need for defence spending, we need to decarbonise – is austerity, yes.
Reform is in there though. In Exeter, at the county council election in May, Labour was wiped out by Reform and Green gains. GE could go to any of Reform, Green, or Labour
"More than 180,000 people have arrived in small boats since figures were first recorded in 2018" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Google is your friend 👍
Hundreds of thousands of people willing to undertake a terrifying and extremely dangerous journey to get to the UK indicates huge latent desire for people to come. Sadly there are tens millions of people who live under conditions of constant persecution which would entitle them to refugee status.
Have a listen to today's Today programme from 1h 10m, where Rajan interviews a Sudanese refugee and then Jonathan. That'll explain better than I can.
I'm not assuming that.
Do you mean what's the evidence of demand to come here or do you mean on grounds people are granted refugee status?
Waving from Exeter! Next GE in all likelihood will be Greens Vs Reform here. Though winning seats will require more donations to fund campaigns and more volunteers to do actual campaigning
Clearer charts of how there simply isn't much North Sea oil and gas left. It's gone. There are a handful of relatively tiny new fields that companies want to exploit (Cambo, Rosebank, Jackdaw) but hopefully the Finch decision will put paid to them and we can get on with offshore wind turbines
67% – I forget that IPCC wording but I think that's "more likely than not"
I expect several million people would seek asylum (on genuine grounds) in the UK if they could, via safe routes. Whatever the rights and wrongs of doing that, a government that allowed that to happen would not be re-elected. Anyone disagree?
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So yeah Norway is pretty hypocritical. But while we still need gas I'd rather we use North Sea gas than gas from anywhere else. The most important action is for *us* to reduce our gas consumption – more wind turbines, more solar, more heat pumps!
(We used to import a lot of Qatari LNG, but as our long-term contracts expire they've begun selling elsewhere to people willing to pay more. Qatari LNG is actually as clean as LNG gets, as their gas infrastructure is relatively new and is well maintained, unlike in the US)
US LNG is the "marginal" source of gas in the UK – if we cut our gas consumption, the first source of imported gas we will stop buying is US LNG (A substantial chunk of our imports are re-exported to Ireland and continental Europe, mind)
It's quite probable that burning US LNG to generate electricity is as bad as burning coal – around 800g CO₂ per kWh produced. www.research.howarthlab.org/publications...
This video is awesome but I will say one thing: it is true that North Sea gas is much "cleaner" than gas from elsewhere. But what's that actually mean? So much methane leaks from US fracked shales that using US LNG results in twice as much global warming as using North Sea gas
Yeah I mistyped slightly – yes I don't think there's much value in an update against the 1.5° budget. An update against the 2° budget would be valuable I think. I wanted to add one of your charts to this post the other day 👇 but couldn't find one I felt was right for it
Would be great to have an update and against +2°C
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Turned the rest of the interview off as Coutinho's babbling is impossible to listen to
Just woken up to something I never thought I'd hear: Amol Rajan taking a sledgehammer to the Tories" batsh*t energy policy by simply stating fact: there's next to no oil and gas left in the UK continental shelf. #r4today
I'll just leave this here. bsky.app/profile/benz...
And most of that has agglomerated in South Wales. For example, the old Ford engine factory at Bridgend is being resolved by data centres
Data centres in Great Britain have a total power draw of 1.6 GW out of our 30 GW average national demand – 5% Most of it – 1 GW – is in London. The region with the next highest amount is Wales, at 154 MW
Especially if ScotWind and Beyond 2030 transmission gets built out
If we emit another 1,100 billion tonnes of CO₂ global warming will reach +2°C. We currently emit 41 billion tonnes of CO₂e a year. If we carried on as we are, we'd have to stop emitting pretty much bang on 2050 to limit global warming to +2°C (we're at +1.4°C now)
We used to call those hybrids lol
Dan Neidle looked at this; you might £1B perhaps, but otherwise not very useful taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/08/23/c...
Not so sure. The weather for crossings remained good until almost the end of August. That suggests a big decrease in departures from France. If that's the case, that's significant.
EDF ex-CEO Henri Progolio December 2022: "The EPR is too complex, almost impossible to build"
EDF March 2016: "the EPR nuclear reactor is not too complex to build"
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That's what Clean Power 2030 is all about. Goals include becoming a net exporter of electricity and less than 5% of electricity generated by unabated gas
They're welcome to forgo revenue (they won't)
With the granting of a DCO for Morgan, GB now has –12 GW of offshore wind under construction –12 GW with planning permission
We must acknowledge that we have openly racist MPs now. Is it too much to hope that parliamentary authorities will deal with this appropriately?
Not sure why you don't think the reason is to have a stronger voice in discussions with HMT. It's patent that HMT doesn't understand what needs to be done to deliver growth. Starmer seems determined to keep Reeves, so not many other options to get pro-growth choices into HMT's thinking
Do you use Cosy with a heat pump and batteries? I'm hearing of more and more people who set their heat pumps to a higher target and/or charge batteries during the cheap periods
There is also limits on engineering. Mingyang have already lost blades on their 20 MW prototype (obviously they did not intend this to happen, it was not "unusual conditions" whatever they say) www.offshorewind.biz/2024/12/13/2...
Fundamentally it doesn't look worth it. It's unclear why China is doing this. Why build another set of factories, moulds (for the blades), machinery, dock yards, and installation ships when you could just get on with making maximum use of the ones you've got (15 MW in Europe)
It's a bit more complicated for "Intelligent" tariff customers but the simple version is don't touch your EV or battery charger, just make extra use of other appliances
Octopus have now declared 2-3pm tomorrow a "Free Electricity Session", where any additional electricity you use above your average for that time is later refunded on your account. I've always wondered how that works with Agile; happily the answer is you still get paid if they price is negative 👍
Well it will if they want to export >20 MW machines, ain't no WTIVs big enough to erect those!
Octopus Agile customers will be paid to consume electricity tomorrow 👍 Those times are CET, take an hour off for BST
Without I'm sure the economy would have been even worse
💵 ENERGY BILLS & RENEWABLES How much are they going up by? Why are they going up? What are the long-term causes of high bills? A short 🧵 on why the answer isn't all blowing in the wind...
This government can't even spell
Reform says no fracking in Lancashire, saying conditions on the Fylde Coast were "not conducive to fracking". This is the most accessible part of the Bowland Shale formation, believed to be the largest tight gas resource in the UK. That's why Cuadrilla prioritised fracking there.
Lets focus on why inflation is higher for those on low incomes. Key thing is that the contribution from household bills has risen (as past falls drop out of the calculation) and food inflation picks up again. This is very unwelcome for families already struggling with the cost of living.
I do love shoulder seasons (it's autumn now, right?)
A fair chunk of the standing charge rises is down to changes to the Warm Homes discount, which is £150 off bills if you're on Pension Credit, or on Universal Credit with a ‘high cost to heat’. The ‘high cost to heat’ eligibility criteria is being removed, so all six million households on...
5% since 2023, 25% since 2021
–but it's taken back off you if your income is over £35,000, apparently by HMRC changing your tax code. What an absolute mess 🤦.
If you're still following this the upshot is: –if you're on Pension Credit you get a £150 "Warm Up Discount" paid for by other bill-payers –if on UC you'll now get £150 WHD too –pensioners also get either £200 or £300 if born before 22 September 1945 (but note this nonsense 👇) paid by tax-payers
–increased the Universal Credit standard allowance for first time in forever –but immediately destroying any goodwill that would have brought with their punitive PIP changes –*increase* the number of people recieving the WHD but doing it so quietly no-one noticed.
Pension Credit or Universal Credit will get the £150 off their bills, at a cost of £15 to all other bill-payers. Progressive... I guess? But typical of this government to have –immediately destroyed goodwill from voters by pulling winter fuel payments within weeks of coming to power
A fair chunk of the standing charge rises is down to changes to the Warm Homes discount, which is £150 off bills if you're on Pension Credit, or on Universal Credit with a ‘high cost to heat’. The ‘high cost to heat’ eligibility criteria is being removed, so all six million households on...
Ofgem likes to bury price cap unit and standing charge rates so here they are for you. From 1 October the national averages are, ⚡26.35p/kWh, 53.68p/day –up from 25.37p/kWh and 51.37p/kWh 🔥6.29p/kWh, 34.03p/day –down from 6.33p/kWh / up from 29.82p/day Rates by region below 🧵