Will the gas crisis herald a new era of green fuel.or not?

[malificent7]

Just been thinking that if fosdil fuels are going up in price will it incentivise governments to turn to green fuel. There used to be a solar panel initiative....what happened to that? Perhaps the silver lining to all this is that green fuel is the only viable option.
However obviously i'm worried about gas price rises and the effect on normal families.

Isn't the lack of wind this summer partly responsible for the energy problems? Not a great advert for wind energy.

I'm hoping it leads to a government that looks further ahead than the next Parliamentary vote.

I'm hoping that it might reduce consumption and make people think twice about how much energy they need to use (beyond the essential amounts for warmth / cooking)

Yes, renewables aren't perfect of course (if they yield less then prices rise, but the same happens when there is a supply side squeeze from the gas or oil producers)

But it's better for the planet, and diversity of supply is a good thing even if not 100%

I hope so

It's about time individuals, businesses and government got into modern day

@Moonmelodies

Isn't the lack of wind this summer partly responsible for the energy problems? Not a great advert for wind energy.

If only there was more to renewables than wind energy

Sadly OP I doubt it. They'll just do the usual "yes climate change is very important but ..." and pour some more coal on the fire. And people will cheer them.

Our children's children are so, so fucked.

Well it's a vicious circle. Better weather... ( climate change?) No wind...burn more coal...climate change etc.

I might get solar panels.

Isnt nuclear fission also a "greenish" option?

No - sorry op, I think an effort will now be made to protect and shore up the gas supply chain.

@malificent7

I might get solar panels.

We have solar panels and whilst it helps lower our electricity bills it won't do much to help with gas prices it partially heats our hot water but we still rely on gas in colder weather/ darker days...

I think there's going to be a massive uptake in photovoltaic roof panels and battery storage. It should be mandatory in all new builds now IMO

What happened after the 1970s ? We've been here before.

Small Modular Reactor nuclear generators could be one answer, but I bet the NIMBYs and tin-foil hat brigade would be up in arms if one was proposed for their town.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54703204

@DGRossetti

What happened after the 1970s ? We've been here before.

I was explaining the 3 day week to my manager yesterday!

We could do so much more with renewables but they come at a cost in terms of visibility etc. We have a huge shoreline so could have enormous offshore wind farms if we chose, where the wind is more reliable than inland, but nobody seems to push for it because of the sea views in which the turbines would be visible.

In Scotland in particular we could have tons more hydroelectric generation, and a tidal barrage in the Bristol Channel has great potential, but risks destroying habitats for wildlife. Solar farms are still growing in number but rely on sunshine, something we are not renowned for in the UK.

There must be a balance to be struck which enables us to spread renewables over more forms of production to increase reliability, while still conserving the natural environment, but I think that successive governments have, and will continue to, kicked the can down the road as long as there are still fairly available fossil fuels, so as yet efforts haven’t really been focussed in that direction.

It appears Wales is going nuclear.

I don't know all the ins and out of solar production. I gather the panels and battery packs only last so long and are no easy to recycle. I am also told that they and raw materials come from abroad, if the information I was given is correct.

Was there once something they were trying to achieve with wave power?

The problem with solar panels is that they’re too expensive. The schemes that offer subsidised solar panels basically mean the company owns the panels and they rent your roof from you. Which is absolutely no good because you don’t want to give away ownership of your own roof! Various green initiatives like insulation etc are usually only available to the poor or those on benefits. The government could make more green electricity but that’s between them and the energy companies, it’s beyond the control of the normal person who just flips the switch to turn their light on.

@malificent7

Just been thinking that if fosdil fuels are going up in price will it incentivise governments to turn to green fuel. There used to be a solar panel initiative....what happened to that? Perhaps the silver lining to all this is that green fuel is the only viable option. However obviously i'm worried about gas price rises and the effect on normal families.

Fossil fuels are going up in price will lead to it being financially viable to frack again. UK would be better off importing natural gas from US and Canada than Russia.

Personally I hope this leads to an open-mindedness about nuclear power. We need stable sources of power, not intermittent renewables.

@CandyLeBonBon

I think there's going to be a massive uptake in photovoltaic roof panels and battery storage. It should be mandatory in all new builds now IMO

Not gonna be useful in the dead of winter, that’s for sure. People still die for lack of heat in the UK and is unfortunately way too common in the rest of the world. Too much is taken for granted here

We live in a village without gas, so need bottled for my range cooker and oil for heating. We are going to be doing a lot of work on our house over then next 2 years and plan to include solar panels (we have a lot of roof so this shouldn’t be a problem) and an air source heat pump. The latter will require a fair bit of modification to our house (old and in parts single skin brick), but the environmental upside makes it a no brainier.
It will be expensive and will mean that some other plans might not happen, but to reduce our carbon footprint it is imperative.
The government should be insisting that all new builds now follow this path.

I don't get why new builds in the UK are allowed to be built with virtually no renewable energy systems. I grew up abroad - Western Europe - since about 5-10 years there ALL new houses have to have things like rainwater collection to be used for toilets, ground / air source heat pumps, ventilation systems (this helps with energy usage), etc. Gas boilers are very much on the way out there.
Meanwhile our UK new build has none of those things.

Until very rich individuals and the big polluting countries start changing their ways things will carry on getting bad for us all.

We watch them jet around in space preparing a business for other rich people to rocket around the earth and the fob us off by telling us they paid some poor people money to plant a few trees. They don't want to life the life they need to live, and many of them lecture and blame us not themselves.

They carry on living in huge mansions with a large staff and massive energy consumption to maintain said mansion and lifestyle, they don't want to change and they will set the rules so they do not have to change.

Solar panels work and they can be connected to the National Grid, but the issue is that power fluctuates with sunshine.

Short winter days and grey overcast weather will affect the amount of power going back to the grid and not always be at useful times.

Power use goes up in the evenings when people go home.

@GlobalForce

Until very rich individuals and the big polluting countries start changing their ways things will carry on getting bad for us all.

We watch them jet around in space preparing a business for other rich people to rocket around the earth and the fob us off by telling us they paid some poor people money to plant a few trees. They don't want to life the life they need to live, and many of them lecture and blame us not themselves.

They carry on living in huge mansions with a large staff and massive energy consumption to maintain said mansion and lifestyle, they don't want to change and they will set the rules so they do not have to change.

Ok but individuals add up more than a few billionaires. You could kill them all and emissions wouldn’t change.

You’ll be fine. There won’t be any sort of apocalyptic climate change—if anything, we’ll be better able to adjust to climate change if we are living in a rich and productive society.