lol-lol

Fascinating to go to any power generation site whatever energy it deals with. Was surprised to see, and I had already been working in power for years as a Engineering Officer with Merchant navy, four Olympus jet engines at Hinkley Point B ! Also weird hearing jet engines when some Royal Navy ships were manoeuvring alongside at Devonport dockyard. Tech is not always what you expect I have found. Of course the gas turbines, as with the actual AGR system at B had massive energy waste. Fish who need warmer waters live in the cooling water outflow ! Plans are for a "fish disco" noise deterrent to stop fish being sucked in to the cooling water intake ! Such interesting visits and look forward to seeing Hinkley C when visitors are allowed. EDF, Électricité de France, who run Hinkley, Sizewell etc, provide hundreds of EV charging connectors at their sites for their employees, nice if they did for visitors, FOC of course within a visit experience. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinkley_Point_B_nuclear_power_station#:~:text=The%20station%20is%20of%20the,standby%20generators%20for%20the%20station. Hinkley Point B is also equipped with four 17.5 MW Rolls-Royce Olympus industrial gas turbines. Installed in 1970/71, and originally used for 'peak lopping', these are now used exclusively as emergency standby generators for the station.[13]

You just talking about Essex ? If they use T pylons and keep then off them off the skyline. South Essex is hardly a general beauty spot though I gave seen some nice parts in the northern part of Essex ie up towards the east Anglian counties and I hope best aesthetic solution is found.

I've they use T pylons rather than the old style pylons they are only two thirds the size, more squat. Also there's option to go under ground as with the lines to Dinorwig which travel thru Snowdonia National Park. More expensive butvyoy do get nice little shepherd cabins that have warmth for survival in snow etc. I thought there was going to be two or more under sea interconnectors. They are becoming more and more common and now several projects for intercontinental ones not just intercontinental ones. It's always shining somewhere. "It can't rain all the time" (The Crow )

Everyone who has electricity can use batteries, charge at night and use thay electricity during day and start saving, lije I said batteries from a few pounds. As per my previous post millions are doing balcony solar, hand a panel or the foldable ones which are lightweight and can hang, out of windows etc. Also cheap to buy. Only real exclusion is if one is facing directly north and won't collect solar. Even then there are ways to get power. I can see battery swaps for chaged one. Power from Scotland is going to be moved via sub sea interconnectors so no on landed pylons. The bew Denmark interconnector bringing more cheap wind power to UK. UK needs those Bristol Channel tidal projects up abd running along with Hinckley C abd all connected to the wider Grid via the new T pylons. The future has a green light for Green energy.

Home batteries, with or without solar, is all about not pay the sucker Day time rate of Time Of Use, TOU, electricity. Devices from the tiny one above or the range of batteries I have, 1.5 kwh, 1.8 kwh and even 0.5 kwh ones are there to minimise Day time lecky usage. Us with batteries and EVs and solar use these devices to get us through the Day and then switch to consuming Grid power during the super cgeap Night Time Rate, typically about 50 kwhs for me. One of my cars can do V2L if needed. This is how we typically are paying about 10p per kwh for what we take from the Grid. That was over 7 MWH and will be even higher in 2026 as we gave gone to 3 EVs. So looking forward to electricity prices dropping in April. So home batteries, whether one has 5,10, 15 or 50 kwh capacity as I do, with the EV, is not about powering the whole house IMO but to use power from the Grid intelligently so it costs you the least without spending lots just to chase tgat last few watt hours, or Joules as I like to call them. I don't bother to power my Router, or Internet phone or most house lights, not worth it. My house, modem detached, is using only a couple hundred watts during day time. Fridge Freezer being the biggie, that is powered by a battery during the day, it is also be charged at the same from solar. TV, laptops might also be charging via these portable batteries or be plugged in to solar at some time points. All my equipment, including the solar tracking arrays can move with me when I move house solar not locked in to the house. Both car charging wallboxes will stay but they were free or subsidised and I expect they will ve a notable asset for the house when I sell. There are several ways to remove the epiderus from the feline.

One of my "home batteries" was a £14 kit. Pictured below. It actually contained only two led bulbs but did have the little solar panel. This is what the renewable revolution looks like all over the world. Small solar panel built on make shift trestles. Batteries might be old lead acid ones rather than L-ion. Much of the revolution is not thousands of pounds spent on roof top solar and Tesla Powerwall battery setups. There is a massive market in small and medium portable lithium, LFP and soon to be even cheaper sodium batteries in the half to two KWh size which enable people to use almost no expensive day time electricity. What I think might shock people is, like already other places, there will be a new TOU tariff ie from 1600 to 1900 hours where people pay twice or more normal Day time Price. Or one can pay a Day time price of 40P or more perhaps and stay on single price tariff rather than a TOU tariff which actually gives users the opportunity to save hundreds of pounds a year.

Wind growth expected...... https://www.renewableuk.com/energypulse/blog/uk-wind-energy-pipeline-in-2025-a-year-in-review/#:~:text=All%20of%20these%20projects%20have,by%20the%20summer%20of%202026.

The roll out of new battery, solar and wind parks is moving at pace. Wind has new records and 2026 is predicted to be. 2026 expected to see an increase in solar of around 50% . Make electricity even cheaper at night time and business and home will download the power they need the night before and use it during the day and these device are from tens to hundreds of pounds for homes and from a couple of £k for business and will pay for themselves within 3 years. Millions of business and home storage batteries. Australia did over 100k installs in 4 months so UK should be able to do more than a million locations with a year proportionally. energygain.co.ukOptimistic UK Solar Forecast to Grow 50% Year-on-Year Aga...The UK’s solar energy sector is on the cusp of an unprecedented boom in 2026, driven by positive UK Solar Forecasts predicting a staggering 50% year-on-year (YoY) growth for the second consecutive yea

The tech is already here. That emotional vacuum Elon Musk said he could install a large grid battery in less 100 days to replace the expensive and dirty coal and gas Peaker plants in Australia. He did it with time to spare. It is a question of will and facilitation as tech already here and uk is doing it but at glacial pace as usual apparently bogged down in planning and procedures.

The problem with that is the political influences that can massively effects things and with Putin, Trump and Xi in power to predict any commodity is very tough if not impossibly. So mitigating such elements, international trade nuiances, trade deals, origin, valuation had been my business, along with bonded warehouses and inward processing relief, airworthiness, End/ authorised use and outward processing relief to partially offset those geo-political elements. Oil could well fall to twenty dollars if no political tension in the Middle East. That sadly makes it too expensive for North Sea Oil and that scenario is quite likely as China and other countries Oil demand plummets with their electrification. Not only my prediction but many as zan be seen on Bloomberg etc.

Chinese looking like they may support Iran in various ways. Oil go to $100 or $200 a barrel and LNG over $5 or $10 per MMBTU. EVs and heat pumps might be the only game in town !

You clearly do not understand what technology is out there and how it can be applied. How companies, Gridserve, Tesla etc can provide EV charge capacity and make an absolute killing of profit is to install their Mega packs, 40 ft container sized battery packs, and plop them down by the EV charging banks. Charge up the banks when lecky is cgeap and plentiful and the Grid is relatively quiet. Buy in lecky at 7p per kwh or less and sell at 70p per kwh, great business model and the cost of those battery banks are coming down and down. Grid not more stressed, zero emmissions mandate progressed.

Oh God know. The Privization of the Water Industry has been an unmitigated disaster as it has been with rail franchises, 4th one just taken back in to public ownership. Big fan of Octopus as a private company making a small profit compared to British gas and the oil companies taking Billions in profit whilst sending in bailiffs to people who cannot pay their exorbitant tariffs. I watch the occasional YouTube on UK energy issues and from other countries but my core beliefs are from my experiences with various energy suppliers and my own use of technology ie EVs, batteries and solar panels.

Don't agree. Technology will provide without massive Grid enhancement. Australia, from being a fossil fuel luddite has become a renewable energy leading light. Yes they have s bit of advantage with more sunshine but their transition to renewables, home generation and storage, encourage by some grants to businesses and homes were seen as much cheaper than massive Grid upgrading. Adoption of local solar and batteries to hundreds of thousands has taken pressure off the Grid. A lesson to other governments. The technology improvements and lowering costs has made local electricity generation available to all. The National Grid rather than being stressed beyond breaking is actually being marginalised by the vast growth in local generation.

Millions of people in Europe and in fact all over the world are using solar and batteries to get the electricity they need. These people are mainly poor people and those in places where politics and virtual sieges are meaning the people have to innovated to survive. Whether its Palestine- Gaza, Cuba or many "Third" world countries they are using solar and batteries to survive, keep their phones running and devices that need electricity. Like my installations these cost pounds and not thousands and make living with modern technology, but without hydrocarbon fuel for vehicles which is being withheld for political power ie Cuba and Gaza, or just prohibitively expensive where sunshine is free. Google "Balcony solar" and see how solar and battery is helping poor actually every bit as much as those more well off.

The removal of most of the ECO levies and the over 3 p per kwh should hit in April and any private or public energy supplier should apply or be publicly shamed. The down rating of VAT to E or Z rate had been touted as going to happen and perhaps we will hear in the Spring Forecast on March 3rd which is less than 3 weeks away. Be nice to see charging cost of 50p per kwh or less for public charging and 6p or less for charging at home.

Why when the UK is the Wind Farm super power of Europe ? Plus solar in the UK, solar farms and UK homeowners, is growing exponentially. I can see electricity being generated for as little as 1P per kwh. As to how the UK government lifts that price with taxes, charges to upgrade parts of the UK energy supply, particularly the £100B for Hinkley C and Sizewell C, seems to be how we suddenly get prices of 7p per kwh, a seven fold increase. Fortunately I have the knowledge to build my own solar and battery systems. If the Grid does not want to sell me energy at a low enough price I will make my own electricity. Fortunately Octopus have been doing a great job to produce ultra cheap power to charge up our EV fleet to run them at 2p per mile and that is looking like getting significantly cheaper in the next few weeks.

It is looking like both Electricity and Gas are going down in the UK in April. Tempered by other factors of course but we are aware that the removal of much of the ECO levies, on their own, are to reduce electricity by over 3.5 p per kwh and gas by about 0.5 p per kwh, even if one is on a fixed tariff Octopus and others have agreed with Martin Lewis and Rachel Reeves. What the future holds is in large part due to politics ie Iran and the straights of Hormuz, sailed through there a few times and of course Russia and also more building of LNG terminals. In my acquisition of more and more solar and battery and what me and my neighbours are doing in adding 5 kw + solar systems and presumably many with 10 to 20 kwh battery storage systems business and home owners are increasingly less reliant on the Grid and Heat Pump Tech dovetails with Heat Pumps and makes gas usage unnecessary. British Gas guy should know all if this and more if he has half a brain. The gas side of his business will go the way of the Dodo next decade as with diesel and petrol cars.

Really ? Because electricity can be generated without almost any carbon consumption. Gas, of course, means burning carbon in to CO2, CO etc. With the world suffering more and more with climate change we have less and less time to take action. Heat pumps can actually help reverse climate change ie help cool down the Earth with its 300-400% efficiency. https://stopburningstuff.org/

What Octopus have done, ie become bigger customer base than Centrica in about a decade, from nothing, is awesome. Really shaken up the market and recognised as such not just as a supplier but through its Kraken software-hardware platform which about half the energy companies use. In terms of price I was thinking gas is cheap compared to electricity in Q1 2026 and how that affects home owners thinking about heat pumps compared to gas boilers. My company now uses vast amount of LNG to power ships now and that will suck up some of the world demand. Such an interesting market as we have seen by the shock weather in the US and Canada throttling electric supply to NE USA as well as Hungary and Slovakia buying Russian LNG despite the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As with diesel and petrol I would like to move away from hydrocarbons fuels as it tends to come from such bad people in the world. Cornwall Insight, who seem to be the leading predictor, reckon this but we will know for sure in 12 days time.... Should be very nice and especially for us who use two or three times the average usage... https://www.cornwall-insight.com/press-and-media/press-release/price-cap-forecast-to-fall-8-in-april/

But Centrica is no longer the dominant force in the market, Octopus is. Of course they sell Heat Pumps as every big energy provider has to as part of their portfolio but thy have had so many of the customers go from them to Octopus or Eon or the other more innovative energy companies. I do actually have a contract with BG/ Centrica for home systems maintenance and I find then excellent but my energy supply is thru Octopus on their GO tariff ie just under 30p per kwh during the 19 hours on non Night rate, Night rate 8.5p per kwh and I use 90% of my electricity at night so my average electricity cost is 11.2p per kwh including VAT. But A=gas is so cheap and going to get cheaper from April. Currently pay 5.7 p per kwh on a fixed 12M and it is due to go down another 0.5p per kwh, so 5.2p per kwh hour, so frigging cheap but then I do use a combined total of about 8 MWh per year and this winter has been quite a cold one and now we have 3 EVs with addition of the Mini Cooper E in addition to the 2 Renault EVs. Gas boilers are very good heating devices. Mines a 15 kw newish boiler with 90% or so efficiency. I will work to get a heat pump but it might be unit that runs in tandem and like my solar and batteries I will go for units I can take with me rather than permanent installs to the house as you rarely get close to the install cost back when you sell a house. Greg Jackson is helping the government with the energy transition, in homes, business and transport, which is great to see. Like my super massive company I am employed by we are making huge efforts to move away from carbon fuel usage and we are massive in air cargo, rail freight, road freight and of course shipping which is the most difficult to crack but moving strongly on all fronts.

Well he would say that. He does not want people opting for heat pumps and see his business for home heating evaporate. Less and less homes will be buying electricity from the Grid as more and more homes have solar installed and many with batteries as well so they can choose when to buy from the Grid or invest more in their solar installation. Soon as the weather improves I will be outside putting more panels on my second solar tracking array. Electricity and gas have to compete with home ans work generation so they will keep their prices in scope.

Do you know something else as I understood energy prices, specifically electricity, was going to take a massive fall in 48 days time with most the ECO levies come off electricity with over 3.5p per kwh. If that comes off the 7p per kwh that some get for overnight charging then that is golfing the cist to charge. Git a feeling we will not get the full 3 5p per kwh but even 1p off the Night dare would be great.

I was thinking about this year's European Car of the Year ie 2026 and the Merc CLA, 250 or 350 e. I attached what I found above, he seems to agree that the CLA is an exception car though he did only get slightly less than 300 kms before first charge but he does drive well above the UK speed limits on the Norwegian road but they have have much more charges per mile/km than the UK it seems, and cheaper.

£46.5K (Merc CLA 250) from what I could see for the base model so well under the new £50k Expensive car supplement, could even add a few extras and still be below. I would rather have two EVs, £30k and 20k, rather than a single £50k-ish EV. 266 nominal range of my Scenic has been OK for visits to Liverpool or Heathrow ie 246 miles or so, with only the very occasional top up charge of 15 kwh or so when everything against me. It is not a problem if one occasional goes down to, and below, 0%, or over 80% and all the way to 100% occasionally, as long one does not leave it standing for any length of time below 20%, real value not displayed SoC. If I run it below 0% I plug it in and bring it up to 10% on the more expensive day time and then go 10% to 80% on the cheap electricity. No ill effects seen or reported back to me after being serviced and post service report to me. CLA EV has been extensively tested in the 250 and 350 All wheel drive format and even without trying it has done well over 400 miles and that is without testing the past 0% as far as I can see at first glance. MCA 250e broke the 24 hour record doing over 2,300 miles in that period and it quick recharging help better the Taycan. https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/upcoming-mercedes-cla-has-smashed-24-hour-ev-distance-record-a-2309-mile-run