The change is coming (Debate)

Fri 29 May 2020, 18:16

HinkleyPoint C strike price agreed in 2013 for 35 years £92.50 plus inflation since that date.  Sofia strike price for only 15 years I think.  I misheard the number of turbines I will correct it - it’s only 100 to 130.  Gas - don’t know.

Fri 29 May 2020, 16:48

Blimey a strike price of £39.65, isn’t that pretty low? 

How does the strike price for nuclear and gas compare? 

Fri 29 May 2020, 16:36

They suggest almost half the annual energy requirements of the north-east which may be only 5% of UK’s energy demand.  They submitted a bid under contracts for difference which required the lowest ever strike price for an offshore wind project £39.65 per megawatt hour.  Don’t know how the construction is funded.

It brings us back to Liz’s original point about needing to reduce our energy demands and clean up our air so that we don’t suffer from poor lungs.  The so called managed motorways have turned me off using the car for my regular long journeys.  I’ve been using the trains but they are packed, dirty and incredibly expensive.  Also, the smell of diesel inside the train really bothers me.  I’m wondering about when I will feel confident enough to use them again.  

Fri 29 May 2020, 11:46 (last edited on Fri 29 May 2020, 14:51)

I read about this a while ago. It will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world and generate 5% of the Uk's electricity

The location is extremely favourable because its shallow even far out to avoid visual impact problems

I think, but not sure on this, its being built with private money with no subsidies, but prepared to be corrected

Fri 29 May 2020, 09:30 (last edited on Fri 29 May 2020, 18:16)

We just watched a Teesside Tech Talk run by the Institutes of Power and Mechanical Engineers.  

I don't know if people realise just how huge the new wind farm Sofia will be on Dogger Bank.  Imagine 100 turbines, each twice the size of the Eiffel Tower, 195km off the N.E. coast covering an area of 593 sq km.  Expected to generate up to 1.4 gigawatts of energy coming connecting to the grid at Teesside.  To be built by Innogy Renewables UK - a UK based spin off company from RWE.  Turbines from Denmark.  Construction is due to start in 2021.  Each turbine has to have a full seabed survey. 

The talk also had an update on the carbon capture programme being run in Teesside of which BOC is an active participant.  I'm not yet convinced by carbon capture but BOC which runs the UK's largest hydrogen plant in Teesside, is a big CO2 producer at the moment using coal and natural gas for its production.  I suppose the plan is that once Sofia is up and running it will be using excess energy from that.   Trouble is that the Government includes carbon capture in its plans for net zero carbon.  It feels a bit troubling pumping our carbon in compressed liquid form into holes in the rock under the N. Sea.  A bit like dumping our nuclear waste in the Irish Sea.  

Thu 28 May 2020, 18:22

Too young to retire Tony!

Good to hear, you are getting there on the future technologies. Change is a coming and it’s going to be good. 😁

Tue 26 May 2020, 11:33

I recently watched a series of podcasts called 'The Beyond Oil Summit'

A key point was that a lot of the renewable sector is now financially viable without subsidies, and there is an increasing amount of private sector finance going into the area. Also in the past a drop in the price of oil has tended to delay investment in renewables, because of the reduced overall cost of generating power, but the recent sharp fall in oil did not have the same effect this time round. Some of my pension is now in this sector!

Tue 26 May 2020, 10:49

Of nearly 20,000 drivers polled by the AA in May, 40 per cent said they would be driving less after the social distancing restrictions are lifted.

As many as 82 per cent indicated they will take some sort of action to maintain cleaner air after lockdown to help reduce air pollutants.  

Harmful emissions from exhausts – including nitrogen dioxide and microparticles than can get in the lungs – have already fallen in urban areas due to reduced road activity.