Jobs & Education1 min ago
Whitehaven Coal Mine?
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Planning inquiry started today. on one side, the mining company and the steel industry's need for coke. on the other, the environmental lobby who claim that a new coal mine will, er, undermine the UK's climate commitment.
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the environmentalists say that the steel industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gases and this needed to change. not sure how since at this time, there is no way of producing steel at quantity without coke. (scrap steel, although important, forms a very small part of the new steel supply chain). if coal for steel industry coke is not mined in the UK, it will be imported - at great carbon footprint cost - from the USA.
should the mine be allowed, and coke for the steel industry be made in the UK?
https:/
the environmentalists say that the steel industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gases and this needed to change. not sure how since at this time, there is no way of producing steel at quantity without coke. (scrap steel, although important, forms a very small part of the new steel supply chain). if coal for steel industry coke is not mined in the UK, it will be imported - at great carbon footprint cost - from the USA.
should the mine be allowed, and coke for the steel industry be made in the UK?
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//Green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy and electrolysis to split water…//
This country does not have, and is very unlikely ever to have a sufficient and resilient supply of “renewable” energy. In the last week two coal fired power stations had to be brought on line to fill the energy gap. And this is in the summer when it is warm and the days are long. As I write, almost 45% of the UK’s electricity supply is being produced from gas and 15% from nuclear. Solar comes next at 13% (which will stop as soon as it gets dark). Wind is running at 7%, coal at 3% and so-called “biomass” (i.e. wood) also 3%. More than 10% of electricity is currently being imported from France and The Netherlands.
Despite the enormous sums that have been invested in both wind and solar electricity generation in the past decade these two provide just one fifth of the UK’s power requirements (provided the sun is shining and/or the wind is blowing). Massive extra demand will be placed on the grid if people heed the call to switch to electric cars and a similar additional demand will occur when everybody has ditched their gas boilers. To suggest that these same sources can deal with the production of hydrogen on the industrial scale necessary for steel production is simply fanciful.
The country (and indeed the world) needs to get real. There are two alternatives: either we continue to burn things in some shape or form or we drastically alter our lifestyles. And by drastically, I mean fundamentally and entirely. Fannying about with light bulbs, wind farms and burning wood shipped from across the Atlantic will not alter that choice one bit and people gluing themselves to trains will not do so either. Nor will producing electric vehicles for which there is not and is never likely to be sufficient supply capacity. Producing hydrogen industrially from “renewable energy” on top of all this is simply pie in the sky.
I really don’t know how much longer people are going to be fooled by this nonsense. I believe the UK will face an “energy crunch” this winter. The Grid has insufficient electricity capacity and unless we can import more from the continent there are bound to be outages and/or periods of reduced voltage. Simply saying “we must cut emissions, we must cut carbon” brings you back to the choice I outlined above: stop burning things or turn the lights out.
This country does not have, and is very unlikely ever to have a sufficient and resilient supply of “renewable” energy. In the last week two coal fired power stations had to be brought on line to fill the energy gap. And this is in the summer when it is warm and the days are long. As I write, almost 45% of the UK’s electricity supply is being produced from gas and 15% from nuclear. Solar comes next at 13% (which will stop as soon as it gets dark). Wind is running at 7%, coal at 3% and so-called “biomass” (i.e. wood) also 3%. More than 10% of electricity is currently being imported from France and The Netherlands.
Despite the enormous sums that have been invested in both wind and solar electricity generation in the past decade these two provide just one fifth of the UK’s power requirements (provided the sun is shining and/or the wind is blowing). Massive extra demand will be placed on the grid if people heed the call to switch to electric cars and a similar additional demand will occur when everybody has ditched their gas boilers. To suggest that these same sources can deal with the production of hydrogen on the industrial scale necessary for steel production is simply fanciful.
The country (and indeed the world) needs to get real. There are two alternatives: either we continue to burn things in some shape or form or we drastically alter our lifestyles. And by drastically, I mean fundamentally and entirely. Fannying about with light bulbs, wind farms and burning wood shipped from across the Atlantic will not alter that choice one bit and people gluing themselves to trains will not do so either. Nor will producing electric vehicles for which there is not and is never likely to be sufficient supply capacity. Producing hydrogen industrially from “renewable energy” on top of all this is simply pie in the sky.
I really don’t know how much longer people are going to be fooled by this nonsense. I believe the UK will face an “energy crunch” this winter. The Grid has insufficient electricity capacity and unless we can import more from the continent there are bound to be outages and/or periods of reduced voltage. Simply saying “we must cut emissions, we must cut carbon” brings you back to the choice I outlined above: stop burning things or turn the lights out.
// Is Arthur Scargill still about?. //
not sure you'd want him back, his politics doesn't match yours.
https:/
not sure you'd want him back, his politics doesn't match yours.
https:/
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