Great excitement!!!!……renewable energy production has overtaken coal!!!!! Wow, you could have knocked me down with a feather as I heard the unbelieveable news from the doleful voice of the BBC’s devout high priest of climate change, Roger Harrabin, as he breathlessly intoned the good news in the manner of a Spanish Inquisition torturer insisting with dread enthusiasm that the earth is flat and that you must believe him and renounce your previous disbelief!
The UK has achieved its greenest year ever in terms of how the nation’s electricity is generated, National Grid figures reveal.
In June, for the first time, wind, nuclear and solar power generated more UK power than gas and coal combined.
Separate findings from power research group MyGridGB show that renewable energy sources provided more power than coal for 90% of 2017, figures up to 12 December show.
British wind farms produced more electricity than coal plants on more than 75% of days this year.
So coal is down and out and renewables are stepping in to take its place? That’s the BBC message they want you to believe. Naturally that’s rubbish.
First, coal, after the government forceably cut its use as a fuel for generation, now accounts for a mere 2.9% of our electricity production….so hardly a surprise that renewables have ‘overtaken’ coal…or perhaps more accurately coal has undertaken renewables. But have renewables surplanted coal as the BBC implies, the BBC pushing solar and wind? No, gas generation was massively ramped up to fill the hole left by coal. And of coure there’s nuclear….and the one renewable the BBC fails to hype in its bulletins…the controversial biomass. And of course after all the headlines about renewables on a surge the BBC quietly admits….
Renewables overall – including wind, solar, biomass and hydropower – beat fossil fuels for only 23 days of the year.
And here’s the reality….solar and wind may have increased slightly but are in no position to replace gas and nuclear…and from the figures renewables may generate a good share of the power but the use is of non-renewable as wind and solar are produced at times when people don’t need power or is not produced due to adverse weather conditions.
Listening to the BBC’s news bulletins today you’d be forgiven for believing that wind and solar were rocketing in use and had replaced coal when the truth is that it is gas that has replaced coal, and nuclear and gas are still the main providers. The BBC bulks out its sermon with messages from the converted…
Dr Andrew Crossland from MyGridGB and the Durham Energy Institute said: “The government has focused on reducing coal use which now supplies less than 7% of our electricity.
“However, if we continue to use gas at the rate that we do, then Britain will miss carbon targets and be dangerously exposed to supply and price risks in the international gas markets.”
He added that “refreshed government support for low carbon alternatives” is now needed to “avoid price and supply shocks for our heat and electricity supplies”.
Emma Pinchbeck, executive director of Industry body RenewableUK urged onshore wind to be developed across the UK in an “ambitious sector deal with the off shore wind industry” that could help secure a “golden age for renewables” in 2018.
Hardly impartial…especially the renewable industry demanding the government subsidise a vast programme of onshore wind farm building.
Nothing new in the BBC ‘nudging’ the news to ensure we get the message it wants us to believe…and indeed its reporting from the US about the arctic weather they are having right now is a case in point as the extent and seriousness of the issue was played down by the BBC as half the US was engulfed in an arctic blast and is having record cold temperatures and snowfall.
The BBC almost mentions in passing in a small story yesterday the record cold across the US…
Snow emergency in US city Erie after huge storm
A record-breaking snowfall of more than 60 inches (150 cm) has hit the Pennsylvanian city of Erie over the Christmas period, with even more said to be on the way.
The city has declared a citywide emergency as a result of the storm, which began on Sunday.
New York, northern Ohio and northern Michigan are also heavily hit.
The cause?…
Forecasters say the extreme weather is caused by very cold air passing over the unfrozen Great Lakes.
Hmmm…but that’s not why it is ‘extreme’ is it? Odd how this is just ‘weather’ and not ‘climate’ whereas record heat would be ‘climate’.
The BBC finally admits the truth in its headline today….but curiously no mention of climate change at all…
Brutal cold spell sets record lows across the US
Bitter cold continues to blanket the northern United States and Canada as forecasters warn that the deep freeze will continue into the start of 2018.
Can’t be long though before they start pumping out the ‘record cold is a product of global warming’ line to go with ‘record heat is a product of global warming.’
I like nuclear . It’s quiet – you don’t need the NUM – but when it goes wrong it goes wrong big time making global climate change a minor inconvenience in comparison
It’s fortunate that Harrabin doesn’t know what he’s talking about and just vomits our Green Party nonsense .
If we had properly educated people in government and in the Civil Service, we would have already embarked upon a programme of new coal fired power stations. And the climate change alarmists would be back in their box with the lid firmly nailed down. For what the likes of those in the far-left bbc, such as Mr Harrabin, and those at the university of East Anglia in their Climate Research Unit, have done to our country, some of them should be serving time in jail.
Harsh, but fair.
When people start dying due to energy shortages/outages/cost – and it will happen unless drastic action is taken over our energy supply – a long jail sentence should be the minimum these agenda-driven eco-socialists get, interspersed with drift-clearing duties in N. America whilst dressed in their best tipping-point-runaway-global-warming gear i.e. Speedos.
Trumpy has the right idea…
http://www.thegwpf.com/trump-calls-for-some-good-old-global-warming-as-u-s-experiences-record-cold/
The BBC article just repeats statistics that offer no real context, so thank you Alan for reporting this properly.
I do think that renewables are headed in the right direction, I’m just sad that the Greens and the MSM keep harping on about the dangers of climate change. I might be a bit basic, but I don’t think the narrative being pushed “Are humans to blame for climate change?” is an effective one.
Fossil fuels are a finite resource, so we should be investing in technologies that reduce the cost of producing renewable energy (at the moment it is wildly expensive). A post-Brexit Britian could run renewable energy schemes that are cost effective and make us self-sufficient. If the climate wants to improve then that would be a side benefit, but not the main goal. The goal should be to produce renewable energy cheaper than it is to produce energy from coal/fossil fuels.
Although, as I said, I am a bit basic.
RX:
We should be investing in small modular reactors which can be assembled off site and transported to their location. Massive plants like Hinckley Point are akin to HS2: an expensive white elephant.
Furthermore, we should be investing in the development of new nuclear technology such as thorium and pebble bed reactors. This is the future. There is never going to be enough wind (outside of the Palace of Westminster and W1A) to power a modern economy.
Paul Homewood explained the Greenest Year article is based on PR people pushing some amateur guys stats
The BBC article Claimed a “Coal Free Day”
#1 “Coal free electric day” was a pre-Earth Day PR stunt
..the day before Earth Day they TURNED UP THE GAS (& imports) ..and offed the coal
#2 1/3 of UK coal is used outside the leccy industry ..eg iron making component & probably at home (it was April)