Just saw this article about solar energy technology, being able to store solar energy for 18 years. It’s still in its infancy. It only works on small amounts of energy at this point. But if storage techniques get better, then the weather on any given day won’t matter as much.
Hi
Deep Coal Mines are unsuitable.
There are particular requirements for the geology and our politicians of both parties have said they will not build one unless the local communities want one.
We are decades away from having an operational safe storage site.
A good project Bruce, but in an overpopulated country with a great demand for electricity I don’t think we have the mountains to support such a scheme other than on a smaller scale. Perhaps in the lake district or Scotland, but it begs the question, in a country where there are very few wild and attractive places to visit, why let industry destroy what little we have left. Isn’t the whole idea of ‘sustainable’ power to protect the environment?
The problem with these kinds of projects butterscotch is that they produce woefully small amounts of energy. They reckon that in several years time, and loads of money, they might be capable of charging your mobile phone…It’s the same with solar panels and wind turbines. To supply this country with the reliable energy it needs 100% of the time we will have to triple or even quadruple the installations we currently have. I don’t know about other areas, but they are currently building houses round here like there is no tomorrow. It will be interesting to see where all the electricity is coming from to supply all these extra houses as well as the demand for electric vehicles…
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Hi
You make some very valid points OGF.
The recently released Government Energy Strategy is simply not deliverable.
The only way it is deliverable is by the Government scrapping planning laws and hugely raising taxes to finance the building of them.
The alternative is to reduce the impact on consumers by going back and using the gas and oil in the North Sea.
This would give us at least 50 years to sort this mess out.
Here in the UK we can give a leave, but we are not going to stop Climate Change etc.
Poland has massive open cast coal mines next to huge power stations.
They are not going to be closing these down.
We have high grade coal, to be used for converting into plastics and lubrication oils.
The residue is heavy fuel oil, used by ships.
Electric ships anyone?
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I don’t like to rain on your parade but total proven UK reserves are 77 million tonnes, Australia exports about 192 million tonnes a year.
Why??
@Bruce , Well as one of the biggest polluters on the planet Brucy that
shouldn’t be surprising should it ?
Pollution by proxy is still pollution !!
Donkeyman! 
Waddaya mean “one of”? Assman, how dare you! THE biggest polluter on the planet , per head of population Australia is number one. We’re simply the best.
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I agree and it is a point I have commented on quite a few times. A typical house consumes about 10 kWh per day. A typical EV does 40 kWh.and uses it over four days. That means that a house with an EV will consume double the energy for that house. Not only, that UK is a significant importer of energy already. This knotty problem is not going to to go away any time soon.
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Hi
I have a minimal amount of knowledge in this field.
I have managed to understand some of it and have even passed a few exams on the subject.
Coal mines flood, which is a complete No No for Nuclear Waste.
Coal mines produce methane, which easily goes bang, another complete No No.
The really dangerous waste will take thousands of years to decay, so hard rock is also a No No, you need something which will not fracture even in an earthquake.
The geology of coal mining sites does not comply with these requirements.
What we need are specific types of formations, strong but flexible enough to resist tremors with a thick layer of impervious material on top.
South East England, the Tory Heartlands.
Isn’t that just another version of Labour’s Nationalisation plans?
I have no specific knowledge of Geology but I do remember reading somewhere that the South of England is sinking as the North of Scotland is rising due to the lasting effects of the last Ice Age. Doesn’t that rather negate the use of the Tory Heartlands too?
@Percy_Vere , Yeahbut, it should be RE nationalisation Percy !
The railways have been nationalised before,when the sandwiches were
uneatable, but the fares were affordable !!
Donkeyman! 
My home is at the southern foot of the South Downs where we have a well secluded oil field that has so far produced in excess of 20 million barrels. It also has gas easily obtainable, but so far a licence to extract has been turned down. All these restrictions are nonsensical when the whole of the UK needs gas 
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True, but not all of them.
Even so, when the nuclear fuel is vitrified and sealed in stainless steel containers, flooding will not leech away any nuclear material and methane explosions are nothing compared to the testing that is done on the steel containers. They have even run high speed railway engines into them without causing any damage.
Nevertheless, I’m all in favour of burying them in the clay of SE England! I also have a feeling that there were once coal mines in parts of Kent.
Why not both? We certainly should not be paying good money to foreigners, who can’t always be relied upon, when we have our own resources that we can rely on.
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Ask the government dept that issues the extraction licences. The well head is so well concealed, many locals do not know such wells have been sunk.
I agree. But is that picture in this country?
I see a couple of ‘nodding donkeys’. I didn’t know that we used them.
Yeah, it’s about 7- 8 crow flown miles from my front door and yes they still use the very quiet nodding donkeys for extraction.
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