Will the lights stay on?

[Suff]

If they are talking about selective meter based power disconnect, then the vulnerable will be shielded. Although if they have an electric car, they may find it has not charged in the morning.

I'm going to assume that heat pump central heating won't be switched off in sub zero temps. It would be counter productive anyway as people would simply go out and buy portable heaters that use twice the power and house sockets are not part of a selective shutdown.

[cruiser2]

I have still got a few candles and torches with a supply of batteries.
Will have to keep cuudleing my wife!!

[Suff]

Excellent solution cruiser.

I remember my bedroom with single pane steel framed windows and a coal fire in the living room for heat.

Is central heating really mandatory or is it a 20th century luxury?

[Suff]

Today shows the volatility of renewable energy. At 10:45 this morning, 42% of energy demand was being met by renewables, 41% by ccgt and 14% by Nuclear.

We were also _sending_ 4% to France.

The problem will be storage, not the ability to add capacity. For instance our fast reacting pumped storage will last a few minutes before it runs out, but we need days of capacity for those still, dark, December days.

[Workingman]

... but we need days of capacity for those still, dark, December days.

What? You mean that the wind doesn't always blow, the sun doesn't always shine, and we don't have enough long and continuous storage capacity to help out.

How will I get to work with my flat battery, emissions free, child killing through Cobalt mining, environmentally damaging lithium salt pans EV that gives my eco-warrior ego a warm glow?

Bus? What, and mix with the great unwashed?

[Suff]

Nope, you're stuffed for the busses as they are going EV too...

BTW, the trend is cobalt free for batteries. Tesla batteries in China are already cobalt free but they have less power. There is a Tesla battery day presentation some time tonight where Musk will reveal their latest work on more power for less weight with less cobalt and other stuff.

But, yes, I'm highly critical about people who say we can just use Wind and it will all be OK. ALL we have to do is rely on everyone else.....

Me? Nuclear 30%-40% until we sort it all out. We have had 1 week becalmed before. 1 Week of the UK grid is astronomical in terms of power storage. I worked it out in terms of Lithium Ion batteries one time. It's tens of trillions of £ at current costs.

There are, however, such things as flow batteries. There is the Swedish work on an enzyme which absorbs energy from the sun and can release it up to 10 years later with about 70% power retained. It is fluid and needs a catalyst. Early days but worth watching for grid power balancing.

The whole thing is that it is impossibly early in the whole process but we need to be 50 years ahead of where we are today. The problem with that is that 50 years ago everyone was saying "what CO2? Shut up it's rubbish".

We are 50 years behind and every year we don't deal with the problem we fall 2 or more years additional behind. When we reach 100 years behind people will already have started to die. But, by then, it will be too late for billions of our fellow umans.

[Workingman]

But I thought that it was all so easy?

Just double the base-plate capacity of wind by installing another 10,600 windmills and then cover Surrey, Sussex and Kent in solar panels and all would be well. And if we strategically position batteries the size of tower blocks around the country what could possibly go wrong, eh?

Oh, wait! This is planet Earth 2020 not Tython, the home planet of the Jedi.

We are Royally screwed.

[Suff]

Well if you listen to the idiots who think we should all live on the dole and walk everywhere, to reduce CO2, oh and eat exotic imported vegan food too, then it is easy.

When you mention the realities of life, you get shouted down with stats on how many MWhours were generated by wind last month.

There is some interesting stuff though. Three flow batteries, the size of artic containers, stopped the Hornsea disconnect from being worse than it was. Not 300, 3.

[Suff]

For those with an interest, watching the Tesla battery day event is well worth it.

Tesla are aiming for the sky again and have a $25,000 EV firmly in their sights. Especially one with a 300 mile range, fast charging and a million mile battery and drivetrain.

Let alone their switch from Giga watt hour battery production to Terrawatt hour production.

Energy on that scale will make an impact. Firms competing will make that impact even larger.