Britain becomes net electricity exporter

[Bugtownboy]

https://theconversation.com/britain-is- ... ars-197506

[AE-NMidlands]

https://theconversation.com/britain-is- ... ars-197506

Interesting article, it ends up saying

And though renewables and nuclear together provided over half of Britain’s electricity in 2022, the system is still overwhelmingly influenced by prices set by fossil fuel plants. Reforms are urgently needed here to decouple the price of low-carbon electricity from that of fossil fuels.

which we have touched on here before.
A

[dan_b]

An excellent article, some juicy facts in there!

[nowty]

Wow, I did not expect this,

"This time two years ago, we stated that COVID lockdowns meant electricity demand would never be so low again. We got it wrong. In fact, 2022 was the lowest year by some margin (2% lower than 2020). We believe the main factors for this drop were the significant increase in prices, the wider media attention on this, and the wider cost of living crisis."

[Swwils]

7,400+ GWh export output is forecast for 2023. Will most likely be higher as this lucky mild winter will effect summer water levels in EU which will hurt the French, we are aided massively by the Nordics.

This won't be as closely attached to consumer pricing as we would like though and also we will likely need to be vary careful with the gas utilisation. (If we don't use the capacity in the sweet spot, it harms the gross efficiency, which eventually can lead to undesired carbon output.

[Bugtownboy]

In some ways, I think that’s the most powerful message from the article - perhaps we’ve collectively become too comfortable with cheap energy - even now, considering the infrastructure to deliver it, our energy supply is ‘cheap’ and so reliable to be invisible.

If we are going to achieve the goal of a zero carbon grid, perhaps one aspect of the plan has to be reducing societal demand.

As with many things, we cannot continue consuming without considering the consequence. Even if you can’t accept the evidence of AGW, there has to be a basic realisation we cannot consume resources without really considering the impact.

I accept if you’re stuck in a cold, damp, mould ridden flat, this is the least of your considerations.

Perhaps our ‘leaders’ have to start making some real strategic policy changes that will take 10, 50 maybe a 100 years to realise, otherwise, we might as will just pi55 it up the wall and enjoy the next 5-10 years.

Maybe a witty 3 word slogan would help

[nowty]

7,400+ GWh export output is forecast for 2023. Will most likely be higher as this lucky mild winter will effect summer water levels in EU which will hurt the French, we are aided massively by the Nordics.

Explain please, I was under the impression that high water levels in the EU was a good thing and mild winter weather usually means wet weather.

[Swwils]

Ready access to energy is the cornerstone of civilization. There is a reason that Anglo Saxons used Roman glass and couldn't make their own.

Arbitrary blackouts or deindustrialisation make alot of people very unhappy very fast.

[Swwils]

7,400+ GWh export output is forecast for 2023. Will most likely be higher as this lucky mild winter will effect summer water levels in EU which will hurt the French, we are aided massively by the Nordics.

Explain please, I was under the impression that high water levels in the EU was a good thing and mild winter weather usually means wet weather.

No the warmer winter results in less snow coverage (snow pack) and several other humidity changes in atmosphere which leads to lower overall water levels in summer under drought conditions. It also makes long term forecasts less accurate (gradually increasing water vapor content of the atmosphere ~7% increase per 1C temp rise) which is just more instable. Its more to do with the rate of winter warming vs summer than the wetness afaik.

When your nuke output looks like hydro output you are not in for a good time lol.

[Bugtownboy]

Ready access to energy is the cornerstone of civilization. There is a reason that Anglo Saxons used Roman glass and couldn't make their own.

Arbitrary blackouts or deindustrialisation make alot of people very unhappy very fast.

Get that, but don’t ‘we’ have a responsibility to use it sensibly - this winter, with the price rises, have made people consider their usage.

Why wasn’t this occurring already - we're generally too frivolous with resources.