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Paid not to consume electricity...

Looks like the scheme is going forward 

Has anyone heard yet the details of how it will work? ... as (even with a smart meter) they can't measure what you don't use so presumably will try to compare with some kind of "normal" - any idea what that "normal" is likely to be? An average across all customers - or what you actually used the same day the previous week or something like?  I'm just wondering if it might allow the unscrupulous to inflate their usage at certain times to claim the extra money at others...

       - Andy.

Parents
  • It most certainly is only a Nuclear answer as renewable energy is impossible.

    www.thegwpf.org/.../Menton-Energy-Storage-Conundrum.pdf

    Humm, What's the opposite of cherry pick? - i.e. to select the worst little bits? Probably not the phrase I'd need anyway as Mr Menton seems to have strayed a little beyond that even to arrive at his starting point. Li-Ion batteries can only last 4 hours? The only renewables are wind and solar - so no hydro, tidal, pumped storage, or biomass? New Nuclear "all but impossible" - yet we have Hinckley Point C actually under construction at the moment. He claims there have been no small scale 'demonstration; projects, but ignores the experiences of thousands of 'off grid' installations going back decades. I dare say there are some sensible points in there somewhere - I certainly agree that storage will be a challenge for a 100% renewable grid, but with his starting points so over-egged, it's difficult to take any of his actual numbers seriously.

    Probably worse is the implication that if we can't be assured that the entire target can be reached in a single step, that the entire journey is ill-advised. For me even without any storage we could supply perhaps 80% of our electricity from renewables - and even in the worst possible case we still had to fill in the remaining gaps using entirely fossil fuels, that would still leave us in a much better position than we are now - not only from a CO2 stance, but on energy security as the much smaller amount of fuel required could be sourced domestically, at least in the medium term.

       - Andy.

Reply
  • It most certainly is only a Nuclear answer as renewable energy is impossible.

    www.thegwpf.org/.../Menton-Energy-Storage-Conundrum.pdf

    Humm, What's the opposite of cherry pick? - i.e. to select the worst little bits? Probably not the phrase I'd need anyway as Mr Menton seems to have strayed a little beyond that even to arrive at his starting point. Li-Ion batteries can only last 4 hours? The only renewables are wind and solar - so no hydro, tidal, pumped storage, or biomass? New Nuclear "all but impossible" - yet we have Hinckley Point C actually under construction at the moment. He claims there have been no small scale 'demonstration; projects, but ignores the experiences of thousands of 'off grid' installations going back decades. I dare say there are some sensible points in there somewhere - I certainly agree that storage will be a challenge for a 100% renewable grid, but with his starting points so over-egged, it's difficult to take any of his actual numbers seriously.

    Probably worse is the implication that if we can't be assured that the entire target can be reached in a single step, that the entire journey is ill-advised. For me even without any storage we could supply perhaps 80% of our electricity from renewables - and even in the worst possible case we still had to fill in the remaining gaps using entirely fossil fuels, that would still leave us in a much better position than we are now - not only from a CO2 stance, but on energy security as the much smaller amount of fuel required could be sourced domestically, at least in the medium term.

       - Andy.

Children
  • Probably worse is the implication that if we can't be assured that the entire target can be reached in a single step, that the entire journey is ill-advised.

    I couldn't agree more. We have to make a start and we are heading in the right direction. Locally, this week has been particularly poor with dark grey skies and no wind (until today) so some emissions (even from locally grown trees) are inevitable.

    A fundamental problem with renewables is storing the summer excess for the winter. We (i.e. Mrs P and I) could possibly depend entirely upon PV in the summer, but not a chance right now!