You can monitor the grid HERE if it's of interest.
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Bill

TP1 , sorry , but 'they' are even more stupid than you can ever imagine.

Ask 'them' if they can fire up Ferrybridge, Didcot, Eggborough , etc .

The remaining buildings may burn well but that's all .

Luck, is all that is keeping the lights on 24/7 .

When the wind does not blow there is plenty of alternative hot air about. Mind you not much good for generating power.

Edited By KWIL on 07/09/2021 09:02:44

PGK, I think the French beat us to it, they have positioned a number of their nuclear plants on the coast of Brittany and with the prevailing wind being a south westerly, where I live in East Sussex is right in the firing line if they happen to have an “accidental” discharge. Dave W

Our 'economy' has to be important else we will not have the money to go completely green & save 1% of CO2 world emissions.

Tony

Better stop using your electric car until the problem is resolved.

A really special day today , 0840hrs.

The entire output of our coal-fired stations being exported to Europe via the interconnectors.

it was just the same in the 1960s,the destruction of our railways and scrapping of of a couple thousand steam new locos,now its the power stations stupidly scrapped,and sitting on our own coalfields,all this carbon reduction crap is going to eventually cripple our economy and dramatically increase our cost of living. I read now that they are going to build floating off shore windmills ,in deeper water,how long will they last in the stormy sees we get around the uk. As for corn grinding windmills,and watermills historically they proved useless as the population grew and needed more food and flour,most of them ended their days with a great big diesel to drive the milling machinery when the winfd and water supply failed,I am fed up with all the tv news being filled with a load of idiot meeting in Scotland,Whats the point in crippling ourselves with grandiose plans when China and others churn out loads of carbon crap and do not care a damn.

Dafter than that. British coal-fired power is generated using coal imported from Brazil and the USA.

Coal mining in the UK was once a huge industry, but it's pretty much gone. The early Victorians understood enough geology to predict British coal reserves would last about 150 years. They were about right, as this graph of UK coal production shows.

The graph tells a story. From a peak during the First World War, when South Wales was the largest exporter of coal in the world, British mines gradually ran out of coal. Thousands of mines shut down throughout the 20th century as the quantity and quality of available coal dropped, and the cost of extracting it rose. In 1970 it became necessary to import coal into the UK, which was the final death knell for any industry relying on cheap local coal. Millions of jobs went. As a result the Britain of 2000 was very different from Britain in 1950.

Despite declining UK coal production, it still made good sense to build coal-fired power stations in 1970. But the writing was on the wall. Fifty years later we have to deal with the consequences, like it or not, all the rules have changed. Does it make sense to build coal-fired power stations in a world where coal has to be imported, where prices will inevitably rise, and where burning fossil fuels is causing a climate catastrophe? Not if there's an alternative source of electricity, and even if the alternatives are imperfect. Although the process will be painful, it's time to change. Nothing lasts forever, not even 'King Coal'. Served us well in the past, but time moves on.

Dave

Blimey, if I didn't know better I might start to think you lot are not entirely convinced we are heading for a toasty thermageddon