camelot-forum.co.uk

Quietly in the background, has anyone noticed we've gone another very long stretch of zero coal (45 days so far) - and that it looks like it might be about to finish due to low wind and rising demand for cooling...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... con-demand

Ratcliffe U3 currently churning out 230 MW of the black stuff.

(nowtyrecord for searching)
For comparison the record of longest UK coal-free streak lasted 67 days, ending in June 2020. That will be hard to beat because it was in the Covid lockdown time so during a period of very low demand.

https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-news/2 ... er-britain

It will be beaten eventually.

Interesting that this article mentions air-con demand as a driver.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... con-demand

I wonder what the split of retail business / non-retail business / household air-con / refrigeration usage is like.
I'll admit, I get pretty irritated every time I go to my Tesco Local and see pretty every single fridge unit door in the locked open position. Understandable when stocking the shelves, zero reason at other times.

Combined with lack of forward thinking building construction (think roof overhangs on south facing walls, inward opening windows with external shutters), air-con demand is only going to increase.

Very surprising that the article does not even mention low wind which is by far the main driver, although I guess if its hot here, that generally correlates with low wind here in the UK.

Interestingly it also mentions the fault on the Norway interconnector which I was not aware of, and I can see that its 700 MW down on its usual import. That deficit by itself dwarfs the 230MW of coal being burned.

With regards aircon the article gives no information whatsoever about UK demand apart from a general statement about world demand.

I find it quite difficult to find meaningful info on aircon use.

I found this,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/911 ... e-country/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/721 ... ry-europe/

Yeah, the article actually tells a different story doesn't it - the Norway Interconnector fault will have had a far bigger impact!

...and solar PV numbers haven't been posted on energy numbers yet.

Also worth noting is that we've lost 2GW of nuclear - we were at 5GW only the other day, now down to 3.3GW - both units at Haysham and Torness are out of action.

Methinks that's not helping hence the coal coming back on.

dan_b wrote: ↑Mon Jun 12, 2023 1:45 pm Yeah, the article actually tells a different story doesn't it - the Norway Interconnector fault will have had a far bigger impact!

For those skimming (me too) ..straight to the point on the interconnector fault.
https://www.statnett.no/en/about-statne ... g-repairs/

Doesn't it seem increasingly daft burning coal to cool homes (I know, more than mere cooling) these days, in a blooming heatwave of all things.