The British government’s new Energy Minister has admitted that the UK will be facing electricity black-outs by 2016 because coal and nuclear power stations are going to be decomissioned and “green” power can’t be produced in big enough quantities to keep the lights on.
It’s a welcome admission that the British government’s energy policy is going to destroy the country and that the green scam is intended to return us to a mediæval economy but there’s a gotcha. It is, says David MacKay, our fault that there isn’t going to be enough electricity because we keep opposing wind farms, nuclear power stations and energy imports and not at all the fault of the British government for committing to closing down existing powerstations and replacing them with windmills.
So it’s our fault for objecting to handing over acres of countryside for windmills and the planning system is getting in the way of the British government’s plans. The general public isn’t going to change its mind over wind farms and when electricity rationing and black-outs start there are going to be riots. Therefore, in the mind of a politician, the only solution is to change the planning system so that we can’t object to wind farms. And because planning is devolved, it will only be changed in England and large scale wind farms will only be built in England against our wishes. The Scottish government has already said that no nuclear power stations will be built in Scotland even though they have thousands of square miles of uninhabited countryside that would be perfect for nuclear power stations.
So the burden will once again fall on England to provide for the whole UK while the celts get to pick and choose when they want to contribute and on what terms. All I can hope is that when the lights go out – and there is very little doubt that they will – that the ensuing total failure of society will destroy the anti-English British establishment.
Technorati Tags: Electricity, Climate Change
Wonko, I do think you should check where your electricity company gets its electricity from. In all possibility it’s Scotland. We sell our excess to England.
So it’s our fault for objecting to handing over acres of countryside for windmills and the planning system is getting in the way of the British government’s plans.
This pises me off to the extent that I seriously think we need to rid ourself of the Westminster politicians and go to some sort of English confederation of legislatures, each administering a portion of this fair land and the English parliament coordinating it.
Nuclear power stations are not as simple as that, you need some strange configuration, that is why there is one at Torness and that odd one in Essex.
3/4 of jockland is no use because it is not on the National grid
oddly also, this article was in the economist about 3 months ago but the jist of it was, ‘the ministers are a bunch of cocks for not knowing this and whitehall is having problems writing a report in simple enough terms that the message will get across’
I STILL can’t bring myself to blame the generators.
I’m sorry, but WE the consumer are to blame JUST as much. We’re running ever more gadgets, appliances and unneeded crap in our homes, 24/7. Plasma TVs – power hungry and crap. Set top boxes on 24/7 – again, lazy, shite design. Standby – utter laziness and complete crap – I have a washing machine that uses..about 10 watts at “full off” on the panel. Crap, utter crap. Off at the plug = 0 watts.
Microwaves with clocks etc – just as bad for draw. PCs and TFTs the same – the manufacturers are getting sloppy, lazy and encouraging inefficient usage by inefficient design and piss poor monitoring, “real world” energy use reporting, and total energy costs over appliance lifetimes.
What we bring, we bring wholly on ourselves. We’ve become a lazy, self indulgent society used to comfort gadgetry, convenience and crap that we could well manage without.
You can build as many power stations as you need, but unless we go back to basics, “off is OFF”, and looking at minimizing equipment power consumption, we’re screwed – we’ll just be stuck at the same point.
I say this as a fellow IT worker, gadget fiend and buyer of inefficient goods (that I then modify accordingly), who has a continual power cost of £5 a week..heh.
Oh, and you need to sort your captcha out – under FF2 the box is too small for the image! I see “Rampant Rab”..who must be a lucky man..;)
Consumers and manufacturers may be to blame for the amount of power we consume but the British government is to blame for deliberately failing to provide enough electricity generating capacity to meet demand. There is no way of targeting non-essential items when electricity rationing starts so households will be without electricity for essential and non-essential household appliances. As always it’s all stick and no carrot.
The problem with politicians nowadays is that they fundamentally misunderstand their job which is to keep us safe, keep the lights on and make sure we can put as much money in our pockets as we possibly can.
“Consumers and manufacturers may be to blame for the amount of power we consume but the British government is to blame for deliberately failing to provide enough electricity generating capacity to meet demand.”
But that’s a self defeating argument..:) How can you match the demand, when the manufacturers are hell bent on not economizing on usage by design innovations like the good old “off” switch? It was good enough when we were young…remember? Much less household crap, much less waste, much less idiocy, much less unnecessary tat. Just things that were needed to keep houses clean, tidy, fed and provide a basic entertainment without needing to supply 24/7 “just in case with 0 preparation” functionality.
We can’t blame the gov’t for not being able to keep up with OUR appetites for crap – we outnumber them hugely, and we’re all guilty of upping the load, each and every one of us. I agree taking coal/older nuke power systems offline is going to be a bugger, but if it needs to be done for safety, it needs to be done. As to it needing to be done for the climate, yes, I can also sort of see that. Basic science tells us that pumping crap into the atmosphere 24/7/365 can’t be anything other than detrimental to an ecosystem that’s been ticking along rather well for however many thousand/million years.
They can build more stations, but with what funding? We’re broke as you keep pointing out. If they increase taxes to do it, would that be acceptable? I doubt it. The most this gov’t is guilty of is being corrupt, moneygrabbing, and utterly unfit for office, but they’re not to blame for OUR convenience lifestyle.
If they banned Plasmas and other ridiculous and consumptive technology, or restricted household usage etc would they be any more popular, even if it dropped consumption and levelled out the demand enough to provide a stopgap for a proper solution? Or would they be called dictators?
Until WE the consumer take responsibility for OUR OWN energy usage and as a country, we ALL aim and strive to reduce it, it’s an unwinnable situation with only one outcome, no matter WHO runs the country or makes the rules.
We can’t expect there to be an endless supply of power – it has to come from somewhere!
maye power cuts and no PCs is good way to boost the population?