Does it not matter how big a battery a vehicles comes with people or some people will want to 'risk it for a biscuit' to save money, or spend more money to be sure they have additional possibilities to not just get to a charger?

Model 3 SR+ LFP managed 56 km.

Y managed 34 kms but it was Performance model so 4 wheel drive, 21 miles by my sums.

4 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

Does it not matter how big a battery a vehicles comes with people or some people will want to 'risk it for a biscuit' to save money, or spend more money to be sure they have additional possibilities to not just get to a charger?

Or just a bit of Deer Hunter Russian roulette.

Not in 5 years and 100k miles never had tortoise / turtle mode had me crawling along.

Edited Wednesday at 18:232 days by lol-lol

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

Or just a bit of Deer Hunter Russian roulette.

Not in 5 years and 100k miles never had tortoise / turtle mode had me crawling along.

I'm sure youve said previously you had it in the Zoe or Scenic...

5 minutes ago, skomaz said:

I'm sure youve said previously you had it in the Zoe or Scenic...

Had the tortoise / turtle symbol but not the secondary effect of it actually reducing the power in any of my Renault EVs, tested by giving it full power even with the turtle did not get to the stage it actually subtracting from the HP /KWs available. Despite going a dozen miles past 0% and warning flashed up but no reduction but I did charge up shortly after this ie mile or two.

Mini does show you on screen it is backing off from the full 184 HP and it does that well before 0% SoC. Still got loads of power but I gather Mini, or Great Wall Motor, car does not go a long way past )% like the Renaults do. Dacias Spring also seems to go quite a way past 0% too !

Edited Wednesday at 19:412 days by lol-lol

Orkney about to ve collected to UK National Grid.

Orkney great place to generate supply electricity to feed in to Scotland and rest of UK as well as make the Orkney Grid more robust.

Orkney has solar, tidal and wind i gather and backup diesel generator which i presume they might consider retiring but then again if cheap to keep as standby to the new mainland interlink then why not keep. Further progress to integrating ever larger territories which should bring prices down and further EV adoption.

Edited Wednesday at 20:382 days by lol-lol

Plenty big disused stone quarries around the UK, some that just need water pumped out of then lined.

Edited Thursday at 19:461 day by Evolution13

On 02/06/2026 at 18:13, lol-lol said:

I think balancing is different things to different people, companies and the government. We need a reliable supply and we pay big time for that with the "marginal pricing" is the system of choice.

https://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publications/energy-uk-explains-why-marginal-pricing-is-the-cheapest-way-to-run-our-electricity-market/

Seems most people want a simple, single price per KWh per quarter of the year but that is difficult , as we have seen, with electricity actually costs very different prices from tea time on a dull and windless day to mid day on a sunny and windy day hence the massive margin companies allowed to run ie many many times cost to consumer to average buy in price.

Clearly a massive business opportunity for companies to spend and buy battery storage facilities and hydro energy storage (hydro was 90% of the storage system but that is falling I would guess until the Great Glen hydro scheme gets built). There are suppose to be massive battery energy storage plants in many places over the UK but Uk planning and objectives seem to stall all these projects incredibly. We are so different to China, Australia and some other countries who are rolling these things out at scale.

So it seems to be largely down to individuals to do their own thing. We have discussed previously and it does seem very localised but adoption of batteries and solar at home. About 80% of home solar have batteries with the install. So over 1.6M homes have solar, about 6%, but that growth is accelerating "fueled" by higher energy cost and it is going to jump much higher in 4 weeks time.

As more EVs have Vehicle to Load, Home, Grid the solar and battery setups will more and more link in with the home's EVs. Don't think we can rely on business and government too much as they are just too slow to adapt.

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/residential-solar/how-the-uk-ireland-solar-pv-and-residential-bess-market-compares-with-australia

GOV.UK

Britain continues to break clean power records

Households across the UK continue to embrace solar power as the government accelerates its clean power mission.

Don't believe all the so-called green stuff you come across; it's just greenwashing and is designed to help the push towards the electrification of road transport, and it has a greater impact on some folk than others. Take on Google Earth satellite photos, and you will see just how few people have taken up the solar panels, and if that really is setting new records, then the rest of the world is even further behind.

I see Ford are bringing back the Fiesta as an electric car, and it is basically yet another variation of the Renault 5. No idea when or how much as yet.

Edited Thursday at 22:291 day by Graham Butcher

15 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Don't believe all the so-called green stuff you come across; it's just greenwashing and is designed to help the push towards the electrification of road transport, and it has a greater impact on some folk than others. Take on Google Earth satellite photos, and you will see just how few people have taken up the solar panels, and if that really is setting new records, then the rest of the world is even further behind.

Apparently the UK has a million jobs connected to Renewables but this is dwarfed by China and other countries who have now done much to insulate themselves from the Middle East energy crisis.

Australia particularly hax gone from fossil fuel luddites to strongly embracing renewable in a few shory years meaning the have managed to get rid of most of their fossil fuel poverty station as well as now going past 20 % new cars being EVs despite the sheef size of their country.

Numerous countries round the world implementing massive solar farms as well as individuals setting up their own solar setups as the price of energy from fossil fuels make the economics even more starkly different.

Enjoyed my slots of negative and zero cost electricity today. Charged one of the EVs, heated the water for tonight's usage and more EV charging starts at midnight with prices below 10 P per KWh. Running 3 EVs, doing more than 26k miles a year between them, equivalent to more than the circumference of the Earth and stll paying less than £2k a year to run a domestic home and the EVs is a testament to renewables economics when i use to spend more than £5 k a year on fossil fuel for our cars.

Happy place and Trump should get a sarcastic medal for massively pushing forward the move from fossil to renewables.

Edited Thursday at 22:531 day by lol-lol

@lol-lol not sure just where you are getting this info from, but I think you should seriously question it. It basically sounds like nice political sounds to me. China for a start still has plenty of dirty power stations, although they would you think the opposite. So does Australia, they have the world's largest coal deposits don't they?

China is still the worlds biggest polluter. But are still getting on quick with becoming greener and generate approx 32% of the worlds electricity from renewable sources. Donald Trump has just announced a $700 million investment in coal by using 'Wartime Powers' The plan is to revive the USA,s coal industry. This is from News overnight about the US & coal.

10 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

@lol-lol not sure just where you are getting this info from, but I think you should seriously question it. It basically sounds like nice political sounds to me. China for a start still has plenty of dirty power stations, although they would you think the opposite. So does Australia, they have the world's largest coal deposits don't they?

US network ABC News just did a good Youtube on Chinese renewables. Below is the data abd details of the transition to renewables and nuclear. ABC Video mentions the Chinese coal fired power stations but their days are numbered. Good source of changes in all the types of energy is the International Energy Agency. https://www.iea.org/ Last Global Energy Review attached which gives good summary though is already 2 months old and matters changing fast. (Exojoules are 10 to the power of 18, had to look that up.).

Key findings

 All major energy fuels and technologies grew in 2025 – but at very different rates. Overall global energy demand growth slowed to 1.3%, just below the

average for the previous decade. Slower economic growth and slower growth in energy-intensive industries in some regions, lower cooling demand, and faster

efficiency improvements all contributed to slower demand growth.

 Solar PV, the largest single source of growth, met more than 25% of higher demand, followed by natural gas, which contributed 17%. This was the first

time on record that a modern renewable source contributed the largest share of global energy demand growth. Demand for oil, natural gas and coal all grew in

2025, but at a slower rate than in 2024. Low-emissions sources combined – solar, wind, nuclear, hydropower and other renewables – contributed nearly 60% of the

growth in global demand.

 Demand growth in the United States rose to its second highest level since 2000, excluding post-recession rebound years, boosted by strong electricity

demand from data centres, robust industrial growth and colder temperatures. The People’s Republic of China (hereafter, “China”) accounted for the largest overall

share of global energy demand growth, but at 1.7% its growth rate slowed sharply due to the rapid growth of renewables and efficiency improvements.

 Demand for electricity grew at well over twice the rate of energy demand, reaffirming that the world has entered the Age of Electricity. Growth of nearly 3%

remained above the average of 2.8% over the last decade, but was slower than in 2024, largely due to one-off factors such as lower demand for cooling in India and

Southeast Asia. Electricity demand growth was again driven by a wide range of end uses in buildings and industry. Although only contributing a small share of this

total growth, demand from electric vehicles and data centres grew rapidly. In the United States, data centres made up half of all growth in electricity use.

 Oil demand growth slowed further in 2025, increasing by 0.65 million barrels per day (mb/d) or 0.7%, down from 2024’s already muted 0.75 mb/d of growth.

The increase in both years, which was in line with IEA projections, remained well below the average annual rise between 2010 and 2019 of 1.4 mb/d. The slower

increase mainly reflected weaker growth in petrochemical feedstocks, notably in China, while continued growth of electric vehicles kept oil demand for road

transport in check. Electric car sales continued their rapid growth, climbing over 20% to more than 20 million units – around one quarter of new car sales in 2025.

 Gas demand growth slowed markedly in 2025, rising by around 1%, down from the 2.8% recorded in 2024, amid relatively high prices in the first half of the year.

Incremental demand was largely concentrated in the United States and European Union, supported by colder winter weather, and in the Middle East, where gas use

in the power sector grew quickly. By contrast, Asia Pacific demand grew at its weakest pace since the 2022 energy crisis.

 Coal demand in 2025 grew only modestly above 2024 levels, rising by around 0.4%. In the United States, gas-to-coal switching and strong growth in electricity

demand supported a 10% rise in coal use, reversing the trend of recent declines. Coal demand was flat in China: strong renewables growth pushed down coal use

in electricity generation, while in industry, lower coal use in steel and cement production was offset by increased use for chemicals. Coal demand for power

generation decreased in India, mostly due to an early, strong and long monsoon.

 The increase in generation from renewables and nuclear power in 2025 exceeded the total growth in electricity supply. The 2025 increase in solar PV

of 600 terawatt-hours (TWh) was the largest-ever electricity generation increase by any source in one year, outside of periods of post-crisis recovery. The rise in

solar PV alone met around 70% of electricity generation growth. Renewables combined now virtually match total global generation from coal. In the European

Union, the share of solar PV and wind reached 30% in 2025, surpassing that of fossil fuels for the first time. Electricity generation from natural gas and from

nuclear power continued to grow at the global level in 2025.

 Annual global renewable capacity additions rose to a record 800 gigawatts (GW), of which solar contributed 75%. Battery storage was the fastest growing

power technology: capacity additions rose by around 40% in 2025 to reach almost 110 GW, more than the highest-ever annual capacity additions from natural gas.

In addition, construction started on over 12 GW of nuclear power capacity in 2025.

 Global growth in energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions slowed further in 2025, rising by around 0.4%. Emissions from China fell due to the boom

in renewables, structural declines in energy-intensive industry, and overall slower demand growth. India’s energy-related CO2 emissions were flat for the first time

since the 1970s, largely due to cyclical effects from a strong monsoon combined with structural growth in renewables. A cold winter and higher natural gas prices

pushed up emissions in advanced economies. Due to these trends, emissions from advanced economies grew faster (+0.5%) than those from emerging market

and developing economies (+0.3%) for the first time since the 1990s.

 The rollout of clean energy technologies since 2019 avoided more than 35 exajoules of annual fossil fuel demand in 2025, equivalent to around 7% of

global fossil fuel use annually. Deployment of solar PV, wind, nuclear, electric cars and heat pumps since 2019 also prevents 3 billion tonnes of CO2 annually, or around 8% of global emissions. The avoided coal demand (around 800 million tonnes of coal equivalent) equates to more than the entire coal use of India in 2025.

Estimated avoided gas demand (over 260 billion cubic metres) is equivalent to almost half the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market.

GlobalEnergyReview2026.pdf

Edited yesterday at 11:141 day by lol-lol

Hmm, so are our coal / wood pellet fuelled power stations days numbered. Will anybody actually commit to a date and keep to it is the real question.

Edited yesterday at 10:131 day by Graham Butcher

Your Coal fired in England might be sometime. Already no Coal Fired left in Scotland. Officially it is 10 years since the last electricity generated from coal. There is bio-mass generating electricity. Eon having a plant near the Border as well as others including in Fife. There is capturing biogenic CO2 and producing hydrogen for shipping and aviation.

1 hour ago, Graham Butcher said:

Hmm, so are our coal / wood pellet fuelled power stations days numbered. Will anybody actually commit to a date and keep to it is the real question.

There is going to be a place for fossil fuelled power generation but really just as a backup which is what that energy can be good at considering its current cost and pollution.

There could be weather conditions and depleted battery storage that means we need gas generators to kick in but the plan is that will be rare occasions.

There could be massive volcanic activity that diminishes solar production. Like China the UK should and will get plenty of solar and wind but we may need that in a calm winter.

I was surprised on a visit to Hinkley point to see Olympus gas turbines to vack up the nuclear power plants. Af sea we had several diesel generator to backup the diesecon unit generating free power from the main diesel engine's exhaust where we generated super heated steam for electrical generation.

Always have plenty of backup for critical energy supplies and I have no issue with them being fossil fuelled but normal electricity supply should be all zero carbon and good to see almost every country in the world, bar USA, seemed to be onboard with this agenda, even oil producers in the Middke East etc.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by lol-lol

47 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

Your Coal fired in England might be sometime. Already no Coal Fired left in Scotland. Officially it is 10 years since the last electricity generated from coal. There is bio-mass generating electricity. Eon having a plant near the Border as well as others including in Fife. There is capturing biogenic CO2 and producing hydrogen for shipping and aviation.

The UK planned to phase out coal fired power stations by 2025. This goal was achieved on 30th September 2024 when Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station, the UKs last coal fired power station was de-synced from the National Grid for the last time.

I received a message about a consultation on the interconnector from Scotland down the North sea to England and landfall. One place to see the Plans is Alford. Not Alford Aberdeenshire but Alford in Lincolnshire England. Surely not another song and dance in England over getting Electricity to their areas from the seaside. No wonder everything takes so long when some people are just not happy getting energy if it means some disruption.

2 hours ago, Evolution13 said:

Your Coal fired in England might be sometime. Already no Coal Fired left in Scotland. Officially it is 10 years since the last electricity generated from coal. There is bio-mass generating electricity. Eon having a plant near the Border as well as others including in Fife. There is capturing biogenic CO2 and producing hydrogen for shipping and aviation.

Some if not all coal ones have been converted to burn wood pellets which are imported, WTF, from Canada. Think of the massive emissions that causes, surely far better to burn our own coal, quicker to get and far less damaging?

1 hour ago, Graham Butcher said:

Some if not all coal ones have been converted to burn wood pellets which are imported, WTF, from Canada. Think of the massive emissions that causes, surely far better to burn our own coal, quicker to get and far less damaging?

Wood pellet are counted as renewable somewhat oddly.

Sea transport is very low carbon transport compared to air, rail and road. Ocean cargo ships ate moving to cleaner fuels such as LNG which reduces CO2 abd there are otger moves to even cleaner and lower carbon se transport.

J would like to see no burning of anything, no supposedly sustainable fuel for air or road as it is still returning carbon in to the air even if it wad carbon from organic matter that took CO2 from the air. Only renewable or nuckear though hydrogen, ammonia does have some interesting possibilities.

Just so unnecessary when renewables can provide the power we need for living except on rare circumstances.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by lol-lol

What happens if and when a nuclear accident occurs? How many will suffer or die from the radiation and fallout as a result? They happen far too often to be dismissed or ignored. Solar and wind generation also have their negatives and their own form of pollutants, not that you ever think so, as you never ever hear anything negative said about them, just as you never hear anything said about the rising level of water table pollution rising massively where the minerals are being mined for the batteries. It strikes me that no matter what we use, there is some cost attached to it in one form or another.

Not rocket science. But that is what those and such as those are interested in. Burning up money to develop that further. They want the minerals. Minerals are mined for nearly everything. & mining under the sea and gathering from the sea bed is happening. Water is required for absolutely everything and what water there is on earth is what there is, there is no new water coming. There is water that is frozen becoming liquid. Doomed eventually, absolutely doomed. Humans are responsible for accidents concerning technology and speeding up making earths demise come sooner. Oil is very necessary for so much. Lots and lots is required to produce fertiliser which is concentrated energy put onto the land to then help grow crops. Crops, vegetation and trees capture carbons. Rotten down they produce gas and eventually oil, energy, and coal and vegetation can burn on the earths surface and bellow. It can all go on without human involvement other than the Petrochemical productions. The thing is that it is humans or some that are very wasteful with natural resources that are available on the earth and they need to be using more renewable resources.

15 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

Water is required for absolutely everything and what water there is on earth is what there is, there is no new water coming.

The total amount of water on Earth remains highly stable.

We just have to collect drinking water.

Yes indeed, with micro plastics and forever chemicals added, also medication. So more chemicals needed to clean it up, or energy. The wars will be over water. Many world regions are short and desalination is required. That requires energy. Lots of energy, solar in lots of regions. That is renewable. So if half the world lives in areas that experience sever water scarcity for parts of the year that's something the UK can ignore is it. As it is UK farmers and growers where praying for rain. But then new technology obviously means H20 not needed to produce food. We can produce dehydrated water. I remember seeing that on the telly. April 1st i think. Anyway the millions of litres needed for Data Centres in London just take it in from the Thames and then put it out again. No harm done. I have no idea why England are so rubbish at having safe drinking water and never any shortages, and obviously being plentiful it costs so much. The UK can not even control human and animal waste going into rivers, lakes and into the sea. All about the CRAP, what a pity it can not be used to produce more energy as happens in some regions. PS. Hydro generation in Scotland being out priced by Solar & Wind generation.(Much of which is being paid to not be generated or used) Meaning many planned new projects for Hydro and on hold, or not getting the inward investment for it going ahead. Hydro is at its most useful in Winter months in the UK. Needed actually as a way of storing energy that comes from wind and solar.

Edited 21 hours ago21 hr by Evolution13

I have no idea why England are so rubbish at having safe drinking water and never any shortages, and obviously being plentiful it costs so much.

That's an easy one, greed is the answer.