Green Steel
This article on the BBC is entitled Tata Steel: Would-be UK buyer Liberty’s jobs hope.
Sanjeev Gupta, the head of the Liberty Group, is reported as saying this.
We would look to transition from blast furnaces to arc furnaces, from imported raw material to domestically available scrap, from making carbon steel to making what we call green steel – melting and recycling scrap using renewable energy.
As I heard the quote on the radio, I can verify that it is more or less correct.
I don’t know, whether what Mr. Gupta said can be achieved, but it strikes me that it is a feasible idea.
Will Manchester Get A Crossrail-Style Levy?
My Google Alert for Crossrail found this story in Planning Resource, which is entitled Crossrail levy model proposed for Greater Manchester mayoral CIL. This first paragraph sums it up.
A proposed city-regional mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) for Greater Manchester would operate in the same way as the existing pan-London charge to raise funds for the Crossrail project, with councils able to implement their own levies alongside the mayor’s charge, it has emerged.
Will Manchester’s council leaders and voters go for it?
From here in London, where if the Mayor wants to fund something sensible like Crossrail 2, all the Mayoral candidates and the Boroughs seem to back it, I can’t see all ten Manchester boroughs agreeing, as they seem to have a long record of doing things their own way!
Power From Renewables Surges To High As Emissions Fall
This was the headline on a story in the Business section of The Times today.
Apparently nearly a quarter of the UK’s electricity was generated from renewables last year.
In 2014 it was 19.1%, but last year it was 24.7%.
It all goes to show, that we should think long and hard about building any massive power stations; nuclear, coal or whatever.
I have decided that now is the time to put solar panels on my roof.
The Death Of Traditional Steel Making
If we’re being serious about making steel using the traditional methods of blast furnaces, converters and lots of energy, it’s not a very green process and it contributes to pollution and global warning.
We have a serious oversupply of steel in the world and this page lists production by countries.
In 2014, the world produced 1670 million tonnes of steel, of which we produced just twelve.
Looking at the production levels, there are quite a few countries that produce produce small numbers of million tonnes of steel like we do.
As China produced 822 million tonnes of steel in 2014, how many of these countries will be forced out of steel making in the next few years?
What will save steel making in a lot of countries is improvements in technology.
The parts of the steel industry, that seem to be the most profitable are the downstream uses of the metal, like making rails for railways. In this country, we have a reputation for using steel in innovative ways, but few of these uses need steel made in Britain, although they may need a quality steel to start with.
But that quality steel can come from anywhere with the knowledge to produce it.
China will acquire that knowledge, just as the Japanese did in the 1950s and 1960s.
It is interesting to look at iron ore by country in 2014. Out of a world product total of 3.22 million tonnes, we see.
- China – 1.5 million
- Australia – 0.66 million
- Brazil – 0.32 million
- India – 0.15 million
- Russia – 0.1 million
So does this partly explain China’s massive production of steel?
I think Australia and Brazil are the two most important countries on this list. Both have large amounts of energy and because they are ambitious intelligent countries, as the steel-making technology develops, will we see them increasingly becoming makers of quality steel?
I don’t know, but it says to me, that even producing quality steel in a niche market won’t be profitable for long.
The money and employment is in using quality steel, not in making it.
It may be a hard unpopular view, but we should let the rest of the world fight over supplying us with quality steel. If we want security of supply, I’m sure the Aussies would provide it.
As to the steel-making areas like Teesside and South Wales, we have to move on.
The Future On Teesside
In fact Teesside seems to be doing that, if a BBC report this week wasn’t truly negative.
What puzzles me about Teesside, is that there is little mention in the media about York Potash. This is from Wikipedia.
The project intends to mine the world’s largest deposit of polyhalite – a naturally occurring mineral – located on the Yorkshire coast.
The mine site is located outside the village of Sneatonthorpe, between Whitby and Scarborough in North Yorkshire. The project plans to construct two 1,500 m (4,900 ft) shafts to reach the mineral seam which includes a mineable area of around 25,200 hectares (62,000 acres).
To minimise the amount of visible infrastructure within the North York Moors National Park, a protected area, the polyhalite will then be transported 37 kilometres (23.0 miles) in an underground tunnel to the company’s processing plant at Teesside. After granulation and drying, the finished product – marketed by Sirius Minerals as POLY4 – will be exported from the nearby harbour facilities.
Could it be that, this project appears to not be very green and in the minds of many is creating a giant hole in the North York Moors National Park?
My view is that the UK needs more big projects like York Potash, that earn billions of pounds from exports, create thousands of jobs and don’t despoil the environment.
So what have we got for South Wales and Port Talbot in particular?
Nothing as big as York Potash, but there are plans for the world’s first tidal lagoon power station in Swansea Bay Wikipedia says this about the Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay.
It is planned to be the first of six tidal lagoon power plants to be constructed in the United Kingdom, and one of four planned to be built in Wales. The tidal lagoon would have a capacity of 320 MW.
The project was named as part of the UK government’s 2014 National Infrastructure Plan and was granted planning permission by theDepartment for Energy and Climate Change in June 2015. Power production is expected to begin in 2019. The operational life time of the artificial lagoon is 120 years, effects of global warming have been included in the planning. It is also to be constructed to withstand 500-year-storms and to function as a coastline protection against storms and floods.
So what are we waiting for?
The economics depend very much on the strike price for electricity generated and the Government seems reluctant to set one. I do wonder if they have got themselves tied in knots with trying to build a white elephant at Hinckley Point, that they can’t think of anything else.
Consider.
- I’m not against nuclear power, but Hinckley Point C is so expensive and its strike price is so high, that it will be a millstone around the necks of energy users for decades.
- If we want to go nuclear, there are smaller and proven reactor systems available.
- Electricity generation is going more distributed with the growth of solar panels, local heat and power systems and other technology.
- Large energy users are changing technology to cut use.
- The tidal lagoon technology gives protection against storms and floods.
- Tidal lagoons could be the twenty-first century equivalent of the nineteenth-century seaside pier.
- If the technology and economics of the tidal lagoon work, it will produce carbon-free electricity for at least 120 years.
- There are other places, where tidal lagoons could be built.
You could bet your life on the Dutch building a tidal lagoon, but they don’t have the tides.
Rather than back a doomed steelworks, the Government should back the unique energy project of the Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay.
If the energy economics don’t work out, you still get the coastal protection and leisure facilities.
A Metro For Teesside
The Tees Valley Metro has been in planning mode for some years and I can’t understand why it hasn’t happened yet.
All that seems to have happened is the opening in 2014 of James Cook University Hospital station, which I wrote about in James Cook Station – The Reinvention Of The Halt. The station certainly seems to be attracting a level of use, typical of a station of its type.
I also wrote about the metro in The Creation Of The Tees Valley Metro.
A Metro For South Wales
The Welsh are also keen to create a South Wales Metro for some time. I wrote about my observations on the trains in the area in The Welsh Could Be Having A Lot Of Fun Playing Trains In The Cardiff Valleys.
This project should be beaten into action as soon as possible.
It is interesting to take a look at a Google Map of the coast between Swansea and Port Talbot.
Swansea To Port Talbot
I don’t know the area well, but I know many people, who have enjoyed leisure time spent all along the South Wales Coast.
Perhaps, if the steelworks were to be closed, it could be treated to a Barcelona solution, where their steelworks was closed and the area turned into beaches and parks, which formed part of the Olympics in 1992.
The Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay would be generally sitting in the western part of the bay.
I believe that a comprehensive South Wales Metro, could go a long way to creating more jobs, than will be inevitably lost at Port Talbot.
Conclusions
Steel production is virtually dead in the UK and we must move on.
If we can find an innovative project to replace steel making, we should back it and as with York Potash, it doesn’t necessarily mean billions of public money.
But decent infrastructure and local rail, tram and bus systems can go a long way to creating the jobs needed everywhere.
In both the examples of Teesside and South Wales, surely if nothin else, a decent metro would give a boost to tourism.
The Evil Killing Of A Shopkeeper
This story on the BBC is untitled Arrest after Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah dies in attack.
In my view, this marks a new low for Islam in the UK, in that a thoroughly decent Muslim shopkeeper was murdered by another Muslim man, because he was being thoroughly decent and friendly to his Christian friends and customers.
That in my book is terrorism and the evil bastard who did this should be treated with the full force of the law.
Kenneth Clarke On IDS
I found this article on the BBC. This is said.
He is firmly on the socially authoritarian wing of the party: against abortion and gays in the military, in favour of capital punishment and the return of caning in schools – positions that led to Ken Clarke to describe him as a classic Tory “hanger and flogger”.
I think it says, that the vast majority of the centre of the British electorate, feel that IDS is one of the dinosaurs and his views belong in that enormous dustbin we reserve for history.
IDS Appears To Have Shortened Odds Of Staying In EU
On my Brexit Referendum Betting Odds page, since IDS jumped, the odds seemed to have moved slightly in favour of staying in.
But then despite his Road to Damascus moment, IDS in my mind, has always been someone from the dinosaurial wing of the Tory Party, who wouldn’t impress the vast number of voters in the centre.
Coal Is On The Way Out!
In my view, the only sensible use for coal, is using it to create products for uses like medicines.
The Army also found a use for coal, when they got National Service recruits to [paint it white to give them a job to do.
But two stories tell the world that the Western World has decided that coal is like the lady and not for burning.
This story in the Guardian is entitled Peabody Energy, world’s largest private coalminer, may file for bankruptcy. This is said.
The world’s largest private coal mining company is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, driven to the brink of collapse by plummeting energy prices around the world, cheaper and less polluting rivals such as natural gas, and widespread economic uncertainty.
When you consider that to get the same energy out of natural gas compared to coal, you generate a lot less carbon dioxide and a lot less of other pollutants, is it surprising? Especially, as the whole process is probably cheaper!
This story in Rail Magazine is entitled FLHH axes 145 jobs as coal cuts bite. This is said.
Freightliner Heavy Haul (FLHH) is to cut 145 ground staff, shunting and driving jobs as the closure of coal-fired power stations accelerates.
Economic forces are seeing that King Coal is killed.
I won’t be shedding any tears.
Is HS2 At Risk Of Derailing?
There is an article in The Telegraph entitled HS2 at risk of derailing at top speeds, report finds.
I have read the article and the report by Professor Woodward at Heriot-Watt University is obviously, based on sound mathematics and enginering principles.
We have a problem with HS2, which is not unlike the problem with the new Hinckley Point nuclear power station.
There is a big need for extra capacity, but it will cost an awful lot of money.
In both projects too, there is a lot of opposition.
Professor Woodward’s research has one serious consequence, even if the high design speed of the line doesn’t make the trains derail.
It is that if you reduce the speed of the line, the economic case for HS2 is shot to pieces.
If you decide that there could be a safety problem with the embankments, you have to strengthen them and that ruins the economic case too.
If we look at Hinckley Point C nuclear power station, not building it, is not as serious as not building HS2.
We have several other ways to generate power and also lots of ways to save it. Also, the widely quoted strike price of £92.50/MWh would make a lot of other much cheaper schemes like tidal power viable.
But this doesn’t solve the problem of creating more capacity on the rail lines between north and south for both passengers and freight.
HS2 doesn’t carry freight, but hopefully, it will free up paths on traditional routes to the north, that could be used by freight trains.
If you think we don’t, travel between Euston and Glasgow on Virgin Trains and look at the passenger loading.
At present, Network Rail are carrying out various schemes to squeeze more capacity out of the current lines and it is hoped that in the short term, this will help.
But in some ways all it will do is create more demand for travel on the routes.
So at some time we’re going to have to build a new line, which will allow faster speeds than the current lines.
If you look at Phase 1 to the West Midlands, this will have the following effects.
- Extra capacity between London and the West Midlands.
- Journey times of around fifty minutes.
- Making Birmingham Airport, a viable one for those living in North London.
- Paths released for freight on the West Coast Main Line.
- Reorganisation of traditional services on the West Coast Main Line to serve more places.
In Phase 1, there would probably be no more than half-a-dozen trains in both directions on the southern section of HS2, south of Birmingham International station.
On the other hand, when Phase 2 to Manchester and Leeds opens there will be upwards of twenty trains per hour both wayson the same southern section.
I can understand, why those in the Chilterns are getting angry.
So to the protesters, Professor Woodward’s research could be manna from heaven.
For some time, my view has been that we need new tracks between London and the North via Birmingham, as even if all existing lines were upgraded, there wouldn’t be enough capacity.
I think we’re going to need some radical thinking.
For instance, suppose you made Birmingham International a hub, where the lines from the North met a line to London and one into Birmingham city centre.
This might help in the design of HS2 to the north of Birmingham, but that is not the area, where there is major opposition to the line. That is between Birmingham International and London, where land is limited and wherever you build it, you’ll annoy someone.
I suspect, a lot of people working on the project, sometimes feel like going and working elsewhere.
But whatever we do with HS2, we must improve the traditional routes.
- Electrify the Midland Main Line to Derby. Nottingham and Sheffield,
- Electrify the Chiltern Main Line to Birmingham.
- Electrify the routes across the Pennines from Preston and Liverpool to Hull, Leeds and Newcastle via Manchester.
- Sort out the Digswell Visduct on the East Coast Main Line.
- Improve speeds to as high as possible on all routes to the North.
The only trouble, is that the more we improve traditional routes, the more people will travel by train and the need for HS2 will become more urgent.
Energy Switch Inertia
I’ve just heard Paul Lewis on BBC Breakfast talking about some of the new rules to find the best energy deal. It sounds a real mess, which is all to the advantage of the Big Six.
I wrote Read This Article If You’re With The Big Six Companies, when I read a good article by Stewart Dalby, where he advocated self help.
Talking to a few friends who are still with the Dreaded Big Six, I’m convinced that the biggest problem is brain inertia and making the decision to switch.
But against this, I’ve never met anyone, who is dissatisfied with a small supplier after switching.
There are various methods, I’ve heard of where people found their new small energy supplier.
- Recommendation from a friend or someone they trust.
- One lady was pointed to her supplier by her doctor.
- From the consumer pages of a daily or local paper. One was even recommended by the Daily Star!
- I’ve seen one supplier advertised above urinals in a pub toilet.
- From a local councillor.
I chose my supplier, as I saw an interview with OVO’s founder in the Sunday Times. I liked what I read and as I still do, I have no reason to change!
The Anonymous Widower 