Germany Agrees To End Reliance On Coal Stations By 2038
The title of this post, is the same as this article on the Guardian.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Germany has agreed to end its reliance on polluting coal power stations by 2038, in a long-awaited decision that will have major ramifications for Europe’s attempts to meet its Paris climate change targets.
The country is the last major bastion of coal-burning in north-western Europe and the dirtiest of fossil fuels still provides nearly 40% of Germany’s power, compared with 5% in the UK, which plans to phase the fuel out entirely by 2025.
Travel across Germany on a train and you see the high chimneys of coal-fired power stations everywhere.
When we can get rid of coal by 2025 and France by 2022, you do wonder why Germany is taking so long.
The Guardian article provides a partial answer in that both the power company; RWE and the trade unions are very much for the continued use of coal.
The Germans are phasing out nuclear power, in response to the Green Party. Surely, unregulated coal-burning is far worse than well-regulated nuclear power?
But then the prevailing winds mean that most of the carbon-dioxide and pollution goes to Poland, who are big coal-burners themselves.
I wonder what would have happened to coal-fired power stations in the UK, if Margaret Thatcher hadn’t taken on the miners and started the run down of the use of coal!
The can would probably have been kicked down the road and we’d probably have coal power stations at German levels.
China-Backed Coal Projects Prompt Climate Change Fears
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
These are the first three paragraphs.
As levels of greenhouse gases reach a new record, concerns are growing about the role of China in global warming.
For years, the increase in the number of Chinese coal-fired power stations has been criticised.
Now environmental groups say China is also backing dozens of coal projects far beyond its borders.
I have been against coal as a fuel for at least fifty years.
Initially, it was for three reasons.
- Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, there regularly seemed to be a serious coal-mining disasters like Aberfan and Katowice.
- My health had been seriously affected by London’s domestic coal fires.
- I also believed that nuclear power could supply us with affordable energy.
Also at Liverpool University, I met so many students, who were from mining areas, with horror stories of the health of miners.
Over the last couple of decades, I’ve gone very much against the building of large nuclear power stations, although I do feel that small modular nuclear reactors may have a place.
But the growth of wind and solar power has convinced me that with the addition of energy storage, we can manage without coal.
Obviously, the Chinese and Donald Trump think differently.
It should be noted that we are an island and if sea levels rise we will suffer, whereas China and the United States are large land masses with plenty of places to develop.
Trump and Xi Jinping need to be reeducated.
Britain Powers On Without Coal For Three Days
The title of this post, as the same as that on this article on the BBC.
This is the first paragraph.
Britain has not generated electricity from coal for more than three days – the longest streak since the 1880s.
Let’s hope we keep out our commitment to phase out coal completely by 2025!
An Appropriate Story For Today
On Page 58, The Times has an article entitled Frictionless Flywheels Hold Balance Of Power.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Flywheels will be used to balance supply and demand on Britain’s electricity grid in a £3.5million project that could help the country to cope with more wind and solar power.
Sophisticated flywheels that can store electricity for long periods of time are to be installed next to the University of Sheffield’s battery storage facility at Willenhall near Wolverhampton, in the first project of its kind in the UK.
By using batteries and flywheels together, this makes a responsive battery that can fill in demand and overcome the degradation problems of lithium-ion batteries.
It looks a promising way of creating an affordable and reliable energy storage system.
Who needs coal? Trummkopf obviously does to buy votes!
In the United States, with its massive mountain ranges, it would be better to create construction jobs by creating hydro-based energy storage systems, as we did in the 1970s at Dinorwig and the Americans, themselves did at Bath County Pumped Storage Station a few years later.
To gauge the size of these plants, Bath County has about the same generating capacity as the UK’s largest power station at Drax, with Dinorwig being about 55% of the size.
Bath County and Dinorwig are big bastards, but their main feature, is the ability to pump water to store the energy.
Energy is like money, the best thing to do with excess is to put it in a secure storage facility.
Should We Boycott America Over Trump And Cimate Change?
This article called Paris climate deal: Trump announces US will withdraw, has just appeared on the BBC web site.
I feel strongly that we should all cut our burning of fossil fuels, or at least the high carbon ones like coal.
So what can we do?
I typed “Boycott America Trump climate change” into Google and got a large number of articles posted in the last couple of days.
So I’m certainly not the only one who feels strongly!
So will I be boycotting American goods and services?
I always do to a certain extent, because when it comes to gluten-free foods, a lot of American manufacturers use high strength glucose made from wheat instead of sugar. And I react to it.
So for example, I now no longer eat any Cadbury products!
I also haven’t used a Starbucks for some time, but that’s in protest at their tax affairs.
It’ll be interesting how this one plays out!
After all, there’s quite a few Americans who didn’t vote for Trummkopf and some States appear to be going down the Paris route.
What Should We Do With Old Coal-Fired Power Station Sites?
As I indicated in The Beginning Of A New Era, the way we generate electricity is changing.
Wikipedia has a list of all the active coal-fired power stations in the UK. The section starts like this.
There are currently 9 active coal fired power stations operating in the United Kingdom which have a total generating capacity of 14.4GW. In 2016 three power stations closed at Rugeley, Ferrybridge and Longannet. In November 2015 it was announced by the UK Government that all coal fired power stations would be closed by 2025.
So what should we do with the sites?
This picture shows the power station site at Eugeley
This is a Google Map of the area.
The two stations shown on the map are Rugeley Trent Valley, which is on the the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line and Rugeley Town, which is on the Chase Line.
Many of these large coal-fired power station sites sites are rail connected, so that the coal could be brought in efficiently.
In the June 2017 Edition of Modern Railways there is an article entitled Freight, Not All Doom And Gloom, which makes this plea.
Old coal-fired power stations and Ministry of Fefence sites with ready-made rail links, could make ideal distribution parks, if they are in the right part of the country.
The author is so right, when they say elsewhere in the article, that these rail links must be kept.
Even, if a site was given over to housing, developers will say, that a good rail link to a development, improves their profits.
The article is an interesting read about moving goods by rail and contains a few surprises.
- Moving coal and steel is well down, but to a certain extend, these bulk loads have been replaced by the moving of aggregates.
- The article states forty percent of the materials used in London buildings, are now brought in by rail.
- The supermarket groups and in particular Asda and Tesco are increasingly using rail for long-distance transport.
- Short term Treasury policy sometimes works against long term aims of moving freight from the roads and cutting carbon emissions.
- Quality 1980s passenger stock with wide doors might make excellent parcels carriers.
The last one is an interesting point, as HSTs have only got narrow doors, whereas pallets could be fork-lifted through the wide doors of something like a Class 319 or Class 321 train.
I discuss the small parcel train in detail in The Go-Anywhere Express Parcels And Pallet Carrier.
The Beginning Of The End For Coal In The UK
This article on the BBC is entitled First coal-free day in Britain since Industrial Revolution.
This is opening two paragraphs.
Britain went a full day without using coal to generate electricity for the first time since the Industrial Revolution, the National Grid says.
The energy provider said Friday’s lack of coal usage was a “watershed” moment.
Let’s hope it’s not a long goodbye.
Sadly, whilst there are people like Trummkopf about, it will be a long time before coal burning across the world descreases to a low level.
Trump’s Plan Won’t Reverse Coal’s Decline
That is the title of this article on FiveThirtyEight.
It explains that coal’s problem is not Obama and his legislation, but that natural gas is so much
This is a paragraph.
Trump — along with many of his supporters in coal-producing states — blames Obama’s environmental policies for the coal industry’s struggles. And it’s true that U.S. coal consumption dropped precipitously during Obama’s time in office. But the timing is largely coincidental: Coal’s biggest problem isn’t regulation — it’s natural gas.
There are several interesting graphs worth looking at.
I think we should all be worried about Trump’s mental health, as he is showing all the logic of a typical East European mad dictator.
UK ‘Need Not Fear Electricity Blackouts’ Says Ex-National Grid Boss
This is the title of another article on the BBC.
This is said.
The UK has enough energy capacity to meet demand – even on the coldest days when demand is highest, says Steve Holliday, the man who ran National Grid for a decade.
He said news stories raising fears about blackouts should stop.
The article goes on to say how gas and coal-fired plants that would have been scrapped will fill any gaps.
They may do, but I have this feeling that energy users and especially big ones are much more savvy than they used to be and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the UK manage next winter without using coal, which produces a lot more CO2 and pollution, than natural gas.
I also think that after 2018, we’ll start to see new technologies and projects generating electricity or bringing it to the UK.
We might even have seen a start on the ICElik or Atlantic Superconnector, which will bring green electricity from Iceland to the UK.
Trump And Charles In Climate Row
This is the headline on the front page of today’s Sunday Times.
Trump is not necessarily wrong about climate change, but cutting CO2 and other polluting emissions is prudent.
If a man met a gorgeous young lady on the back streets of say Marseilles or any other port city and she offers him flavours, then he would take precautions.
Trump said as much, when Putin was accusing him of various things, when he said he was paranoid about germs or something similar.
So it’s alright for him to take personal precautions, but the rest of the world can go get fucked.
There are some things we shouldn’t do, because they may be dangerous to the planet.
Burning coal is one of them, which Trump has said he will promote.
But then, if the United States continues to mine and burn coal, the pristine air of some parts of the country will disappear, just like it has in China.
I do wonder if President Trumkokf has even been to Beijing!
The Anonymous Widower 