Re: Fossil Fuel ending.
The Bristol Channel is only a short distance from my home. At about 10m, it has the second highest tidal rise and fall in the world with the potential to generate up to 5% of the UK mainland's power requirements if properly harnessed.
There has been talk of a Severn Barrage with water turbines built in and a roadway on top.
The latest idea is a tidal lagoon or lagoons with tidal water turbines.
The tidal flow would generate power for all but about two hours a day. Battery or kinetic energy (water) storage, or both could be used to fill that two hour gap.
Micro generation in homes could be expanded but is limited to 5kW per home to reduce problems with overloading the national electrical grid.
We have two solar arrays on the roof with a total rating of 4kW to maximise the feed in tariff payments, so we have 1kW to spare. I looked into battery storage but at the time it was too expensive to make it worthwhile when comparing the break even point with my life expectancy.
With advancing technology it will hopefully be worthwhile at some point.
We also have a stream running in a 1m culvert under the edge of our property. A small water turbine could easily generate another 1kW, but again the cost at the moment is prohibitive. If the cost reduces then I would consider a turbine installation and battery storage, even if it the storage was only to power my workshop, and garage where we have a fridge and freezer.
The solar panels give us a small saving on electricity, plus a small income from power exported, but by far the biggest earner is the original feed in tariff.
Gradually this has been reduced for new installations to the point that solar panels are not as attractive for home installations as they used to be, even though the initial outlay is much reduced compared to 10 years ago.
There is talk about grants for further insulation, but will only effect older homes. Our house has been insulated to within a centimetre of its life, so there is no advantage to us, but hopefully it will help others.
The thing that would help us the most is either reducing the cost of battery storage or grants/assistance with the overall cost of the installation. The same applies to the limited number of people who can use water power to generate electrickery.
We could install a small wind turbine as well or instead of a water turbine, but again it's a major outlay without financial assistance, and we would still be limited by the current 5kW micro-generation power limit.
If the government wants to eliminate the use of fossil fuels it will have to go some. Encouraging more micro-generation would help as long as there was a major take-up, which in turn would be directly affected by the total installation costs and break even point.
I have heard that my former employer is currently working on a hybrid jet engine. Conventional fuel would be used for take-off then it would switch to electrickery to drive the main fan.
Earlier technology was to have a generator driven by a small jet engine, with electric motors driving propellers.
This is similar to the technology used to power ships for several decades, and railway locomotives long before that.
A lot of the basic technology appears to exist, but it must be scaled up, made more efficient, and the cost reduced.
Going fossil fuel free is definitely possible, but my personal opinion is it won't be done in the timescales the government are currently spouting.