Should We Have An Electronic Vote On Brexit?
We need to do something quick and radical to sort out Brexit.
Surely, if electronic voting is good enough for Estonia, it’s good enough for us!
Also if we can work out a secure system for Strictly Come Dancing and Love Island, we must have the technology for a secure vote!
Try getting that proposal through the House of Commons
Boris Gets Screwed, Glued And Tattooed
I voted Remain, but just wish that this Brexit rubbish can be sorted one way or another!
With my circumstances as a non-driving, single pensioner living alone in a comfortable house with a more than adequate pension, Remain or Leave will probably make no or little difference to the rest of my life.
But other things could!
- Increasing air pollution in London and other cities.
- Global warming.
- A government that raided my pension fund or pursued policies that would reduce its value.
- The closure of more restaurants that are good at gluten-free food!
- A government that didn’t back public transport.
- Increasing violence on the streets.
- A government that didn’t back serious research in Universities.
I have listed them in a rough order.
Should We Leave Now?
I actually feel now, that we should leave the EU, as to disobey the referendum would set a bad and dangerous precedent.
Especially, if we have a second referendum, in the hope of getting a result more acceptable to government and/or parliament and it proves just as close.
Imagine a controversial referendum in the future, such as bringing back the death penalty or imposing high carbon taxes.
If the government and/or parliament does’t get an acceptable result, will they go for further referendums until they do?
Where Now?
Boris is in a corner of his own making!
In the days of Rab Butler, Joe Grimond and Harold Wilson, the solution would have been to call in The Queen, who would give the nod to the next Prime Minister chosen by the Great and Good of the strongest party in the House of Commons.
Now with more democratically elected party leaders and the Fixed Term Parliament Act, such old-fashioned methods are now considered undemocratic.
But will the current crop of comedians in the House break the deadlock?
Conclusion
House Of Cards has nothing on this!
Austria Scraps Its Sun Tax
The eye-catching title of this post is the same vas that of this article on PV Magazine.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The nation’s political parties have found agreement on a green electricity package which is expected to create stable conditions for the next three years. From next year, €36 million will be made available annually for the further support of PV systems and energy storage.
As to the Sun Tax, this is explained further on.
The association has already seen one of its other demands met with the cancellation on Thursday of the ‘sun tax’ on the consumption of power generated by householders with rooftop arrays. Under the previous rules, solar households could consume 25 MWh of self-generated solar free of charge but then had to pay a €0.015 levy on every subsequent kilowatt-hour consumed during the life of the PV system.
|All parties seem pleased with the scrapping of the tax.
New Windfarms Will Not Cost Billpayers After Subsidies Hit Record Low
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Guardian.
This is the first paragraph.
The UK’s next wave of offshore wind farms will generate clean electricity at no extra cost to consumers after record low-subsidy deals fell below the market price for the first time.
I have deliberately chosen to print this report from the Guardian, as they generally research carefully what they print and wouldn’t print anything that was parroting government PR.
Until they or another trusted source says otherwise, I’ll believe that we’ll be getting cheap wind-generated electricity.
There is another fact about this announcement; the timing!
Did the government deliberately time, something that even The Guardian would feel is good news to appear on the day when everyone is travelling to the Labour Conference in Brighton?
North Sea Wind Power Hub
I have just found the web site for the North Sea Wind Power Hub.
The Aim
This introductory paragraph details the aim of the project.
A coordinated roll-out of North Sea Wind Power Hubs facilitates an accelerated deployment of large scale offshore wind in the North Sea required to support realizing the Paris Agreements target in time, with minimum environmental impact and at the lowest cost for society (urgency & cost savings), while maintaining security of supply.
There is a lot to read on the site, however this article on the Daily Mail gives a good summary with lots of drsawings.
This is the sub-headline.
The world’s biggest wind farm? ‘Crazy’ artificial power island in the North Sea that could supply renewable energy to 80 million people in Europe is set to open in 2027.
Crazy comes from this paragraph of the article.
In an interview at the time, Torben Glar Nielsen, Energinet’s technical director, told the Independent: ‘Maybe it sounds a bit crazy and science fiction-like but an island on Dogger Bank could make the wind power of the future a lot cheaper and more effective.’
Another quote sums up the engineering problems as the Dutch sea it.
Addressing the engineering challenge ahead, Mr Van der Hage said: ‘Is it difficult? In the Netherlands, when we see a piece of water we want to build islands or land. We’ve been doing that for centuries. That is not the biggest challenge.’
Having spoken to one of the engineers, who planned and developed the Dutch sea defences after the floods of the 1950s, I’ll agree with that statement.
Nuclear Option Has Been Blown Away
The title of this post is the main title of Alistair Osborne’s Business Commentary of today’s copy of The Times.
He is referring to the government’s announcement about new wind farms, that I discussed in Climate change: Offshore Wind Expands At Record Low Price.
I particularly liked his final paragraph.
And nuclear’s not even green: it comes with a vast clean-up bill. True, it brings baseload energy that wind can’t yet match. But storage technology is advancing all the time. So why’s the government persisting with last century tech that comes at a radioactive price? Yes, offshore wind might endanger a seabird that’s forgotten its specs. But, luckily, it’s a bigger threat to another species: nuclear white elephants.
Climate change is so serious, people won’t believe it’s happening and take action unless the medicine is delivered with a spoonful of humour.
Climate change: Offshore Wind Expands At Record Low Price
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on BBC News.
These are the first paragraphs.
A record amount of new offshore wind power has been announced in the UK – at record low prices.
The new projects will power more than seven million homes for as little as £39.65 per megawatt hour.
Compare this price with the £92.50 per MWh for the nuclear Hinckley Point C.
Note that all prices are in 2012 prices.
I have no argument with the engineering of nuclear power stations, but they do have issues that must be addressed.
- They shouldn’t be built in possible earthquake zones.
- They have a very high cost.
- They can be an eyesore in parts of the UK.
But they do provide a good power zero-carbon baseload, once they are constructed.
Dogger Bank Wind Farm
The Dogger Bank Wind Farm would appear to be the centrepiece of the energy developments South of the Scottish Border.
It will be three separate 1.2 gigawatt wind farms developed on the relatively shallow seas around the Dogger Bank.
- Creyke Beck A
- Creyke Beck B
- Teesside A
Wikipedia says this about the first two wind farms.
They would connect to the existing Creyke Beck substation near Cottingham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.[6] The two sites lie 131 kilometres (81 mi) from the East Yorkshire coast.
Both have an area of around two hundred square miles.
Teeside A is further North and would be connected to a substation near Redcar.
North Sea Wind Power Hub
The three fields I’ve listed are all in UK waters and according to Wikipedia will or could be joined by more wind farms in the same area.
But just across the maritime border between the United Kingdom and the European Union, Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands have plans to develop the North Sea Wind Power Hub.
Wikipedia introduces the project like this.
North Sea Wind Power Hub is a proposed energy island complex to be built in the middle of the North Sea as part of a European system for sustainable electricity. One or more “Power Link” artificial islands will be created at the northeast end of the Dogger Bank, a relatively shallow area in the North Sea, just outside the continental shelf of the United Kingdom and near the point where the borders between the territorial waters of Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark come together. Dutch, German, and Danish electrical grid operators are cooperating in this project to help develop a cluster of offshore wind parks with a capacity of several gigawatts, with interconnections to the North Sea countries. Undersea cables will make international trade in electricity possible.
These points are also made.
- Six square mile islands will be built surrounded by thousands of wind turbines.
- The Dutch have estimated that 110 gigawatts of wind power could be produced at the Dogger Bank location.
- We are not a member of the consortium, but it is hoped that Norway, Belgium and the UK will join.
- The Dutch have suggested converting some of the electricity produced to hydrogen.
- Completion date is set for 2050.
I am excited by this project.
We may not be part of the North Sea Wind Power Hub consortium and in a month or so, we may or may not be part of the European Union, but today’s announcement of new wind power projects in our section of the Dogger Bank is effectively a substantial marker, that compliments the European plan.
Consider.
- We are putting 3.6 GW of wind turbines on the Dogger Bank.
- We are connecting it to the UK electricity grid. at Creyke Beck.
- It would be easy to create another bi-directional electricity interconnector between the UK’s planned and the EU’s possible wind farms.
This is the sort of project that works, whether Brexit happens or doesn’t!
Six Scottish Wind Farms
.There is also a second article on the BBC, which is entitled Six Scottish Wind Farms Awarded Contracts.
These are the first paragraphs.
Six Scottish wind farm projects are set to go ahead after being awarded UK government contracts to sell the electricity they would produce.
The schemes include Forthwind and SSE Renewables’ Seagreen Phase 1, which are both proposed for the Firth of Forth.
Four onshore wind farms – Muaitheabhal and Druim Leathann in Lewis and Hesta Head and Costa Head in Orkney – have also secured contracts.
All farms are expected to be built by 2025 and provide enough energy for 265,000 homes.
Price Summary For Offshore Wind
This page on Offshore Wind gives the strike prices for the six offshore wind farms.
Creyke Bank A – £39.65 per MWh – 1200 MW
Creyke Bank B – £41.61 per MWh – 1200 MW
Teeside A – £41.61 per MWh – 1200 MW
Teeside B (Sophia) – £41.65 per MWh – 1400 MW
Forthwind – £39.65 per MWh – 12 MW
Seagreen Phase 1 – £41.61 per MWh – 454 MW
The size of each farm is also given.
Conclusion
The lights will stay on and we will need to develop more energy storage.
The Chilling Power Of Drones And Software
This article on the BBC is entitled Saudi Oil Attacks: Images Show Detail Of Damage.
Read this article and then say, that drones can’t be used to create death ad destruction or merely havoc, like flight disruption at a major airport.
Consider.
- Automation is such, that drones can now be launched on a fire-and-forget basis.
- You can’t jam an autonomous drone!
- There is nothing to stop a top quality programmer creating evil software.
- Much of the software, used for evil purposes, is probably also used to write business, research, engineering, scientific, educational and other types of software.
- The genie is well and truly out of the bottle!
14/09/2019 will become a notorious date in history.
United Downs Deep Geothermal Project Confident On Potential Power Generation
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on ThinkGeoenergy.
This is the first paragraph.
With initial tests of the well drilled, the United Downs Deep Geothermal Project (UDDGP) suggests that the project will be able to generate electricity of as much as 3 MW in power generation capacity.
Two holes have been bored to a depth of 5 km.
If the project is successful, up to three MW of heat could be brought to the surface, which can be used to generate electricity or heat buildings.
A Look At Possible Costs
This page on Wikipedia is entitled Cost Of Electricity By Source.
It gives these for the capital cost of power stations for various zero-carbon energy sources.
- onshore wind – $1600/kW
- offshore wind – $6500/kW
- solar PV (fixed) – $1060/kW (utility) $1800/kW
- solar PV (tracking)- $1130/kW (utility) $2000/k
- battery storage power – $2000/kW
- conventional hydropower – $2680/kW
- geothermal – $2800/kW
Geothermal has one big advantage over wind and solar power in that it is a continuous power source like nuclear, hydropower and some fossil fuels, so it doesn’t need to be backed by energy storage.
Bollocks To Brexit
This snippet is in the bottom-right corner of Page 29 in today’s Sunday Times
Is there no escape from politics? The top and bottom rows of the cryptic crossword in Thursday’s Guardian spelt out “Bollocks to Brexit”. Very amusing, but not a message that isn’t available elsewhere in the paper. How much more impressive to have smuggled it into The Daily Telegraph.
There’s certainly no escape from hearing views about Brexit.
The Anonymous Widower 