03-02-2020, 11:33 AM
1
Climate change and OFGEN plan
OFGEN, the nation's energy regulator, has just released plans for the program of work that is required to meet the government decision to bring down polution from vehicles and homes.Based on a substantial increase in the non-polluting sources of electricity such as wind turbines and photo-voltaic arrays plus other sources, hopefully nuclear, the plan in place is to remove ALL natural gas home heaters (yes, really) and replace them with electric heaters.
Other changes where district heating is more appropriate is proposed to be based on hydrogen burners with the hydrogen coming from the disassociation of water by means of electrolysis.
This is going to mean an unprecedented change to our homes and it IS going to happen.
It must.
No doubt they'll be a whole load of "not in MY house they won't" but when the gas supply to homes is discontinued there ain't gonna be any choice.
Personally I welcome this move. It is desperately needed.
On the plus side the unit cost of electricity will fall especially as smart meters bring in different cost bands based on time of day.
So it's now getting under way and about time too.
03-02-2020, 12:22 PM
5
Re: Climate change and OFGEN plan
Have you got a link Todger?I heard about this some months ago, but no details....
Whatever this is about it's got nothing to do with pollution in my opinion. I don't know the reason just yet, but it would seem our government are under great pressure from someone to reduce our reliance on oil and gas based fuels.
Hypothetically I'm thinking what would happen if supplies of natural gas and especially oil are beginning to run short....
What happens when, say bread, only gets through to the supermarkets in limited supply?
People panic and the shelves are empty within minutes.
What happened when petrol and diesel was rationed back in the Eighties I think it was? There were massive queues at the pumps and people were actually hoarding it, storing it at home in their garages, which only added to the shortage....
So would the government actually tell the people? I think not, they would make up some diversionary tactic to make you think you were helping society to a cleaner pollution free environment....Who would argue with that....And for good or bad, They did it with smoking and changed a whole countries habits.
It just goes to show the power of the government with the help of the media.
As I said earlier, it's just my opinion and it could be wrong, but unlike some people, it's worth challenging and questioning and not just accepting what the media spews out and blindly accepting it. If we had done that we'd still be in the EU.
This is what the Financial Times Reported.
Britain’s energy regulator has called for radical changes to the country’s energy network in a new plan aimed at helping to decarbonise the grid to meet the government’s target of net zero emissions by 2050.
In its nine-point Decarbonisation Action Plan, Ofgem on Monday called for new measures to support the growth of renewables and the rollout of up to 10m electric vehicles, and proposed the establishment of a new regulatory fund to “unlock” investment in innovative solutions to tackle climate change.
The plan was published on Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley’s first day in his new post. “Britain has . . . decarbonised faster than any other major economy, but we must go further, particularly on heat and transport. We are taking an approach that recognises that our role protecting consumers includes achieving net zero,” he said.
He added: “It is now vital that the energy industry rises to the challenge and demonstrates how it will work with the government and Ofgem to decarbonise Britain’s energy system at lowest cost.”
The government said in December that it aimed to achieve about 40GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, up from the current 10GW.
Ofgem said it would support the development of an offshore grid to enable the increase by encouraging interconnectivity between offshore production plants, most of which are currently linked to the power grid on the mainland through undersea cables but do not connect to one another. The regulator said it would begin implementing these changes in the spring by aiming to identify and address any regulatory hurdles.
Ofgem added that it would also be publishing an electric vehicle strategy to address how the grid needs to evolve to meet increases in demand. Electric cars account for about 2 per cent of Britain’s current sale volume. But a significant rise is expected in coming years as carmakers jostle to meet new stringent emissions targets and vie for primacy in the market.
Motorway services operators and climate activists have criticised Britain’s electricity network as not being ready for the rollout of electric vehicles. Ofgem said it was examining ways to improve the flexibility of the grid which would allow greater charging. Among the measures to be evaluated are how electric-vehicle owners could sell excess power back to the grid during periods of peak demand, allowing them to reduce carbon emissions while saving money.
Ofgem was criticised last week by the National Audit Office, the government spending watchdog, which said customers could have saved a total of £800m on energy bills over nearly a decade if the regulator had used more up-to-date information to determine the level of returns electricity companies could make to investors.
03-02-2020, 12:26 PM
6
Re: Climate change and OFGEN plan
They’re only plans, obviously another idea not thought throughWhat about the boiler manufacturers? Not just domestic but commercial as well, what do they make instead of gas boilers?, heat pumps, ?ok if they run an assembly line alongside their gas boiler line, but imagine the cost of all the re tooling, and re training, plus all the heating and gas engineers,what will happen to their jobs when they aren’t doing gas servicing/repairs/ installation? it may well be coming but it will have to be gradually phased in, it will take decades
03-02-2020, 12:31 PM
7
Re: Climate change and OFGEN plan
Originally Posted by OldGreyFox
->
Have you got a link Todger?I heard about this some months ago, but no details....
Whatever this is about it's got nothing to do with pollution in my opinion. I don't know the reason just yet, but it would seem our government are under great pressure from someone to reduce our reliance on oil and gas based fuels.
Hypothetically I'm thinking what would happen if supplies of natural gas and especially oil are beginning to run short....
What happens when, say bread, only gets through to the supermarkets in limited supply?
People panic and the shelves are empty within minutes.
What happened when petrol and diesel was rationed back in the Eighties I think it was? There were massive queues at the pumps and people were actually hoarding it, storing it at home in their garages, which only added to the shortage....
So would the government actually tell the people? I think not, they would make up some diversionary tactic to make you think you were helping society to a cleaner pollution free environment....Who would argue with that....And for good or bad, They did it with smoking and changed a whole countries habits.
It just goes to show the power of the government with the help of the media.
As I said earlier, it's just my opinion and it could be wrong, but unlike some people, it's worth challenging and questioning and not just accepting what the media spews out and blindly accepting it. If we had done that we'd still be in the EU.
Today's Daily Mail.
03-02-2020, 12:35 PM
8
Re: Climate change and OFGEN plan
Originally Posted by Tiffany
->
That will take years to implement. Probably not in my life time then.
I doubt if it is realistic to hit 100% coverage in that time but remember the conversion program to North Sea Gas?
Assuming that storage heaters were installed and little to no electrical changes were needed, they can be run from a 13 Amp outlet in most cases actually it could be done. Just.
|
|
