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Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

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Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#61

Post by RobinL »

thebruce87m wrote: post #17
PunchyHamster wrote: post #7

and still somehow pay tons for "cheap" green electricity

Somehow? It’s a well established and publicised fact that it’s due to the price of gas. It’s so well established that anyone posting a comment here about the high price of electricity without mentioning it has an ulterior motive.

It's also widely misunderstood. Just because the spot price of electricity is set by the price of gas doesn’t mean the consumer pays that price for all of their electricity.

A lot of wind and solar are on Contracts for Difference. That means when market prices go above the agreed level, the generator pays the difference back through the scheme, which reduces supplier costs rather than the generator simply keeping the whole windfall.

This is particularly relevant when e.g. the price of gas goes way up due to the Iran war, it doesn't mean that the consumer ends up paying more for the energy from wind

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#62

Post by byteface »

Yet still it costs several pounds a day to heat your home in winter. People are going back to log burners. I've never seen so much coal/wood sold at the supermarkets during winter. I've got some electric blankets which is great but really energy costs seem to be spiralling.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#63

Post by tonyedgecombe »

goldenarm wrote: post #46

These titles are misleading, they always omit the rest of the grid and the final carbon footprint. In March, the UK emitted 161g CO2/kWh. France did 6 times less CO2/kWh with 2x less renewables ! https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/FR/12mo/monthly

France has much more nuclear. You can argue that is better but even if you agree it would take decades to get there.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#64

Post by energy123 »

nickslaughter02 wrote: post #3

> Britain paying highest electricity prices in the world for second year running > Ed Miliband’s net zero targets are facing fresh scrutiny after Britain was found to be paying the highest electricity prices in the developed world. > New data published on Tuesday showed the price paid by UK industry for power was 63pc higher than in France and 27pc higher than in Germany. > Britain is also the second-most expensive c…

Are you arguing causality? Texas generates significant renewables, and has low electricity prices.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#65

Post by internet2000 »

nickslaughter02 wrote: post #3

> Britain paying highest electricity prices in the world for second year running > Ed Miliband’s net zero targets are facing fresh scrutiny after Britain was found to be paying the highest electricity prices in the developed world. > New data published on Tuesday showed the price paid by UK industry for power was 63pc higher than in France and 27pc higher than in Germany. > Britain is also the second-most expensive c…

I'm sure there's an (un)healthy dose of degrowth to let them hit that 90% number too.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#66

Post by codexb »

zug_zug wrote: post #16
idiotsecant wrote: post #9

This is a 'lawyer-worded' headline. I am an enormous fan of renewables, I am an electrical engineer who designs control systems for renewables exclusively. My career depends on renewables. Headlines like this do nobody any favors. The problem with renewables is that you cannot run a grid on renewables alone. Many days will have an abundant oversupply, like the day shown. Many days will not. Consumers are not tolerant…

For those of us outside of Britain (i.e. 98% of us?) the message here isn't "mission accomplished" -- it's "Yes it's possible"

Well, in the sense that it's possible to be eating zero calories in the time between meals. You still need the meals. If you're just looking at brief snapshots, it doesn't tell you much.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#67

Post by oskarkk »

goldenarm wrote: post #46

These titles are misleading, they always omit the rest of the grid and the final carbon footprint. In March, the UK emitted 161g CO2/kWh. France did 6 times less CO2/kWh with 2x less renewables ! https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/FR/12mo/monthly

The title may be misleading, but IMO not for the reasons you mentioned. "90%" is based on generation right now, live. On the site from the post you can see that for the last day (24h) renewable generation was 66%, for the last week 46%, for the last year 42%. So it's nowhere near 90% renewable in general, but it is 90% at the moment (there's sunlight and good wind). Emissions on the website from the post are lower than on the website you linked - 107 g/kWh for the week, 124 for the year - but I don't know why that is.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#68

Post by teamonkey »

RobinL wrote: post #42
traceroute66 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or actually brcause gas is expensive. Gas in the UK is expensive because the Tories spent decades selling off the storage so developers could turn them into real estate. This continued well into the 2000's when, for example the lettuce (Truss) closed the Rough storage facility in 2017. Gas in the UK is expensive because of 1980's privitisation. Another one of the Tory's great ideas. The UK privitisation model is de…

Why would additional storage make a significant difference to the price of gas?

Because if you have enough renewables and storage to eliminate gas from the mix you are no longer paying gas prices. The more often that happens, the cheaper your bills get.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#69

Post by swarnie »

internet2000 wrote: post #65
nickslaughter02 wrote: post #3

> Britain paying highest electricity prices in the world for second year running > Ed Miliband’s net zero targets are facing fresh scrutiny after Britain was found to be paying the highest electricity prices in the developed world. > New data published on Tuesday showed the price paid by UK industry for power was 63pc higher than in France and 27pc higher than in Germany. > Britain is also the second-most expensive c…

I'm sure there's an (un)healthy dose of degrowth to let them hit that 90% number too.

Economic rocket fuel lands in Dover most mornings, it'll balance out. - Ed Miliband 2026 (probably)

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#70

Post by swarnie »

teamonkey wrote: post #53
jackpeterfletch wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that legislation is in the works to fix that. But we’ll see.

Yesterday it was announced that a trial would take place so that regions near wind farms can receive free energy from them in periods of curtailment. https://www.reddit.com/r/GoodNewsUK/s/jG5OCSWTTy

Unless i'm reading this wrong I'm pretty sure i already have this in the UK nad have done for years. What's the trial even for...
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