A couple for the Battery Boys and the Heat Pumpers.

[Workingman]

Err Eco batteries?

And Heat pumps - or coolers- they can work both ways. Job done. Sell them to these poor souls.

Plot = lost. But they are for the rich first world so are magic.

[Suff]

Well we can keep on mining Coal and pumping Oil, then start harvesting methane clathrates from the sea bed, constantly in ever growing volume.

Or.

"The irony of the green revolution is that we - at least for the medium to short term - need a supply of new metals mined out of the ground," says Prof Richard Herrington, head of earth sciences at London’s Natural History Museum.

We can extract the minerals we need, build them into batteries, recycle 98% of the materials when they hit their life expectancy and when we finally hit the volume of batteries we need, the materials become self sustaining through recycling.

I know which one of the two I'd prefer.

As for heat pumps? Heat pumps do one thing and do it fairly well, but within bounds. They reduce the amount of electricity required to heat or cool your home by 200% to 500%, depending on the spec of the pump and the climate conditions at the time and also whether it is connected to a ground source or just air based.

The goal of a heat pump is to allow the electricity infrastructure to support the transition from CO2 burning gas and oil to non CO2 burning grid electricity.

Forget all the marketing, hype or BS. That is what it is about.

The longer we deride these moves, the harder the climate impact will be. There is, quite literally, no sum of money we can spend larger than the impact of uncontrolled climate change. None. It is in multipliers of the value of the total world economy, each and every year, ongoing.

We just need to get on board. The decision for 2030 curtailing of pure FF engines has already driven Nissan to commit to both a battery factory and EV vehicle production expansion in the UK. This is GOOD for the UK and for the climate overall.

It is all very well picking holes in all of this. But, without offering a viable alternative; trying to shout down activity which is guaranteed to meet our goals is not constructive.

What people need to get on board with is that whilst reducing our emissions and cleaning up our energy infrastructure will cost a lot of money, the cost of not doing it is astronomically higher. Not just in money but also in lives.

[Workingman]

In the wonderful world of modelling, theory, lab work, spreadsheets and graphs everything is possible. In the real world things are much different.

Your mate Herrington also said: "What we really need to do is make sure that mining can be done in a sustainable way," There is no such bloody thing! If we are taking a finite resource out of the ground it is in no way, shape or form "sustainable". He also says: "Ideally, we should work towards a circular economy where we just recycle the metals we use." Yeah, like that is ever going to come about, it hasn't thus far. He lives in a dream world.

Heat pumps, of whatever type, will not be used in millions upon millions of homes in the UK as they are not directly suitable. I live in a block of four flats on communal grounds so we won't getting one. Nor will those in the HA complex up the road. Nor will those in the high-rise flats on the council estate. These home are up and down the land. Then there are the millions more in the strip developments of towns and villages from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, and do not forget the thousands of miles of the various types of terraced houses - 2 up-2 down, back-to back, on street with no yard. Heat pumps are niche.... by comparison: and expensive.

EVs? Hmmm, the good times are coming to an end. We are trashing environments to make the batteries and they are not being recycled easily. To do so is dangerous and energy intensive which is why robotic factories are being built to do the job. Then there's the Battery Boys' electricity for their Tonka Toys, and other things. Come the day the chancellor is going to have to replace the lost fuel duty, VED and VAT on them ~£45bn: I wonder how? One part might be to keep VED and charge it by weight - EVs are heavier than the equivalent petrol or diesel vehicles and do more damage to the roads. Another might be to have dual electricity charges where domestic use for the kettle, washing machine and TV is as it is now but the the EV charge is x times higher per unit - think new smart meters. Or we could go pay per mile (PPM). That would involve EVs being fitted with a tracker, with all the issues that entails. The government would know everywhere you went, when you did so and what route you took. That opens up "tolling" on busier routes / times to force you to go another and cheaper way.

Then there's the charging points. The places I mentioned above can't have a dedicated one so we will need more. How many? Well the SMMT says not a few thousand, not even a few tens of thousand. It says MILLIONS.

Glossy Brochure World is coming to an end.