You couldn’t make this rubbish up. The UK government, yes the one closing power stations, building windmills, & trying to force everyone into electric cars, has just passed a new law.

Under regulations that will come into force in May, chargers in the home and workplace will be automatically set not to function from 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm.

The government is also taking powers to impose a “randomised delay” of up to 30 minutes at other times to avoid pressure on the grid if there is a scramble among motorists to recharge their batteries at the same time.

There are only 300,000 battery electric vehicles (EVs) on the UK’s roads, how long will the no charge period have to be if this number doubles, or as the government desires, increases by 100 fold. I wonder what effect the imminent closure of the remaining nuclear power stations will have on no charging times.

I wonder if it is possible to find a more disorganised bunch anywhere, than western governments & their damn fool global warming policies.

Dear Hasbeen,

Geez mate you do fall for this crap all the time don't you.

Here is the text your source forgot to include;

"The Government will mandate that smart chargepoints must prompt users to input a charging schedule during first use. In addition, smart chargepoints must be pre-set to offer users a charging schedule that by default prevents EVs from charging at peak times. During first use, the user must be given the opportunity to edit or remove this setting. The user must also be able to remove or edit this default setting at a later date. Peak times will be defined in legislation as 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm on weekdays."

So the user can over ride this at any time. So why the carry on?

http://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1015285/electric-vehicle-smart-charging-government-response.pdf

During the early days of "the horseless carriage", people would have to carry enough fuel with them, buy it from hardware stores or send it ahead to be picked up Post Offices if on a longer trip.

Car manufacturers are preparing to dump their petrol models regardless and inevitably steps will be made to accommodate EV consumer requirements, as has always been the case.

Interesting Hasbeen.

Things must be getting serious in Europe for
the UK to take these steps. Perhaps we shall learn
something from it. Lets wait and see.

Dear Foxy,

Things aren't bad at all. These is just sensible moves to deal with future load sharing.

"The time of day at which Electric Vehicle (EV) charging occurs could have significant implications for the electricity system. We expect that many consumers will charge their EVs at home in the future. Without smart charging, EV charging is likely to happen during existing electricity system peak times (such as between 5pm and 7pm) when many people arrive home from work. This would require significant levels of additional investment both in the networks that transport the electricity, with the costs borne ultimately by consumers, and in electricity generation capacity to meet increased demand."

This is nothing new to operators as the TV-pickup syndrome is already dealt with through some close monitoring.

"The National Grid Energy Balancing Team is responsible for ensuring an adequate supply of electricity and try to ensure a frequency of between 49.5 and 50.5 Hz is maintained. To prepare for pickups the team runs a computer program that compares the current day with corresponding periods over the past five years to predict the size of demand, and studies TV schedules to anticipate demand from popular shows. Grid employees must also be familiar with popular soap-opera storylines as one might cause a sudden rise in demand. Owing to this, they are aware of what shows attract the largest audiences and of customers' television choices; one expressed his disapproval in 2013, "The TV pickup from Deal or No Deal is gobsmackingly high. How sad is that?""
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_pickup

The primary instrument to deal with this isn't fossil fueled nor nuclear but rather pumped hydro which can be brought online in 12 seconds.

This initiative will see EV vehicle owners coming home and plugging in their cars for the night. without them having to do a thing the charging will then commence outside the peak times of energy use.

Eminently sensible policy.

So there really is little to get fired up about here and it is only bad faith actors who are feeding chooks like Hasbeen that things like this gain any traction.

There are none so blind as those who refuse to see. I guess this is the lemming virus at work.

The UK, Germany & even France are closing their nuclear power plants. The UK has mothballed most of it's coal plants, & is shipping US forests in chip form in to keep another going. They are still buying the remaining surplus of French nuclear power to keep the lights on, have reopened 2 mothballed coal plants, & are reopening another, & they still cling to the myth than so called renewables can supply a modern country with power. Even Germany is quietly building coal plants.

Meanwhile they mandate the switch to electric cars. They can't sensibly charge the 300,000 on the road now, & keep the lights on, how the hell do they expect to do it when it is 30,000,000.

At least Germany is building a pipeline to get Russian gas to fuel the country, & building a few coal plants, quietly As the first to suffer this disease, they may be recovering their senses.

Either some new woke virus has taken over the minds of western governments, or this is a step on the way to taking our cars, & a lot of other things of modern society, off us.

From the answering posts here, & by the behavior of a couple of our state governments, the disease if rife here. God help our grand kids.

Dear Steele,

Thanks for explaining.

I have no real qualms. I usually prefer to wait and
see what develops. I think the media has a lot to
answer. Look at what they did with the COVID
vaccines scare. My husband and I have both had our
first jab of the Astra Zeneca - and no bad reactions
(despite my having blood clots on the lungs). Our
second jabs are due at the end of October.

Panic should not set in for anything until all the
facts are in.

Dear Hassie,

Don't be concerned. Trying new technologies
is not a bad thing. Neither is innovative
and future planning. That's how we make progress
including deciding what works and what doesn't.
But there's nothing wrong with trying something
new.

It takes the first 60,000 K driving to reach a negative emmission caused by the production of the car. then it depends on the source of the power generation wether a zero emmission is maintained. Following that the consumerables used by the car during its life how are they produced and disposed of?

Hasbeen,
>There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
Finally something we agree on. One question though: when are you going to open your eyes?

>The UK, Germany & even France are closing their nuclear power plants.
But only Germany is doing it for ideological reasons. In Britain and France it's simply that when the nuclear power plants reach the end of their working lives, it's uneconomic to build new ones to replace them; it's cheaper to go with wind.

The UK has reached the stage where its remaining coal plants only operate seasonally. Now they've got cold weather again, of course some are reopening.

Germany has ceased building new coal plants, and the last of the existing ones will close by 2028. However their use of coal did rise this year, due to a combination of higher demand than last year, less windy conditions and nuclear plant closure. But make no mistake: that's no more than a blip on a long term downward trend.

>[Britain] can't sensibly charge the 300,000 on the road now, & keep the lights on
That's a blatant lie! They can and are.

> how the hell do they expect to do it when it is 30,000,000.
Steele explained one of the changes they're making: the one you started this thread based on a misunderstanding of. They'll also be investing in more generation, transmission and storage, along with better international links.

Useful idiots abound.

Too bad that many of the "2050 Zero Emission Target" crowd won't be around to have their Public Trough snouts rubbed to be laughed at.

Sounds good, but ...

Since WW11, both sides of politics have failed totally in their very first duty, sufficient provision for the defence of Australia. They have ensured that our armed forces are neither large enough, lethal enough nor sustainable enough to defend the country. We rely on America but, as Senator and Major General, Jim Molan points out, since the end of the Cold War, US capability has decreased by 30 to 50 per cent, whereas China is "fabulously well armed". And of course, we keep only about 30 days of fuel in the country.

Molan recently told David Flint that we could defend ourselves; we (that is the politicians) just elect not to do so.

I'll believe it when I see it. It could be just another make work scheme; and we didn’t make much of a job of the Collins. Australian governments have lost the trust of the people.

Get over it, the moves towards renewables and new technologies is only going to get bigger and bigger.

Given the history of the UK in terms of industry and innovation, I suspect they know what they are doing.

If you believe the current renewable technology is capable of powering a modern society Chris, you really do need to do a lot of research on the subject. Intermittent windmills & solar can simply not do the job, let alone do it economically.

Personally I don't give a dam what tech is used to generate our power, as long as it works as well as the old tech it is replacing, & does it equally economically.

In the same way I don't giver a dam if a battery, or petrol powers my car, as long as I get the choice of which one I want. Government bureaucrats have an extremely long record of making disastrous choices when ever they try to pick winners, & that is exactly what is happening now.

This is highlighted by this current stupidity of pushing electric cars, with a power generation system that is struggling simply to keep the lights on, let alone charge those cas.

It was the public that chose the car over the horse, & it should be the public choosing coal or wind power, & what to use to fill the "tank" of their cars. This damn stupidity of CO2 caused global warming must stop. The science is there, for those who can actually understand it.

Dear Hasbeen,

And just how long have you been running lines similar to this?

"This damn stupidity of CO2 caused global warming must stop. The science is there, for those who can actually understand it."

Just about as long as I have asked what physical property of CO2 you would like me to ignore to agree with you that it has no impact of global temperatures.

Your politics has always gotten in the road of any science you may profess to bring to this.

Hasbeen,

WE r not there yet, but it keeps getting better each year. I do believe that various renewable sources will one day fuel nearly all of our electricity requirements

Better to study the real science Chris, belief is for religion.

We understand some have a literary mind, & no amount of effort trying to enlighten them with chemistry, physics & math is ever going to get through to them. Hopefully for the SRs of this world, the lefties will finally admit it was all a mistake/scam, & will enlighten them of the facts, even if they still can't understand it all.

I agree Chris, we will replace fossil fuels with something, probably nuclear, sometime, but it will be nothing like the present tech. There are nor enough rare earth minerals on the planet top build enough of the current stuff to supply even Europe, let alone the entire world.

https://createdigital.org.au/this-innovation-could-make-wave-energy-a-viable-renewable-alternative/

Hasbeen, this article expresses hope in wave sources, which are available 90% of the time.

I think many sources of renewables will be needed.

https://www.intelligentliving.co/scotland-most-powerful-tidal-turbine/

the above example of British wave technology would service 2000 homes, but also could harm whales and dolphins

Wind does not offer the same regular energy as tidal which should replace unsightly wind blades.

>Better to study the real science Chris, belief is for religion.
I urge you to do likewise, Hasbeen, because at the moment you're acting very much like a Creationist: you think you have information which invalidates what the real scientists are all saying, but you don't put it to the test. You never ask them about the flaws in your supposed proof; instead you moronically assume it to be perfect because it fits your political narrative.

And then you fabricate ridiculous claims about there not being enough rare earths on the planet (when in reality they're neither as rare as the name suggests nor even essential for renewable energy technology. Don't get me wrong, they are very useful (especially neodymium) but there are alternatives, and whether to use them is a commercial decision.

Then you make more bogus claims about "struggling simply to keep the lights on” when in reality the reliability has dramatically improved. And you repeat the highly illogical claim that windmills and solar are incapable of powering a modern society (as if storage didn’t exist).

Why do you treat easily solvable problems as insurmountable obstacles?

Chris check out the few hundred millions worth of rusty iron & steel that was the Spanish attempt to harness wave power of the mighty Atlantic.

Sorry mate, but the last thing we need is dozens of little boutique systems generating at huge expense, Micky Mouse amounts of power from ever more subsidised systems.

We must go with the most economical power, which is probably coal right now, but could be some kind of nuclear, if just some of the huge waste of money spent on windmills was diverted to the real world to research nuclear options.

By Paul Homewood

Alarm bells have been ringing in European and UK power markets this month, as electricity prices surge to record levels. Here day-ahead prices are triple those of a year ago, and European markets are seeing the same happening, a sign of serious instability in European grids.

The immediate trigger has been low wind speeds across much of Europe in the last few weeks, meaning reduced outputs of wind power. This has led to a shortage of power on the grid, and a consequent spiking of prices. This sort of thing occasionally happens in winter when demand is high, but is unheard of in summer months, indicating that something is going badly wrong.

No matter how many windmills, when the wind don't blow, you aint got nothing.

If Europe gets it's usual cold still period mid winter this year, a catastrophe will be hard to avoid.

Hasbeen,

Yes wave technology has a long way to go.
I agree that we need sensible energy mixes as we make any transition away from a high reliance on fossil fuels.

Hasbeen,
If you read articles by actual journalists rather than bloggers, you'd see the grid remained stable. The lower outputs of wind power led not to a shortage of power on the grid, but to increased usage of gas to generate electricity. It was this, in combination with gas prices rebounding up, which resulted in high wholesale electricity prices.

Due to the higher viscosity tidal and wave power (in the megawatt range) have potentially greater energy generation capability but you still need to get the power to the users.

Wind power tends to be in the kilowatt range but closer to the user.

Both still need storage perhaps- this seems to be the bigger problem.

The good thing about oil and gas is it's own storage.

There's some guys making Zinc Bromide Flow Batteries on the web for home storage.

Come off it Aidan. It was shutting down coal & nuclear plants, & trying the impossible, to replace them with damn fool windmills that has caused the prices to skyrocket, & is currently forcing the shut down of high power usage industries

Fertilizer manufacturers have had to close, as they can't afford the price gas has been forced to, causing, would you believe it, a shortage of CO2. The meat industry will be shut down in another 2 weeks due to a lack of CO2 if prices remain as high.

And some clowns still talk as if windmills are a good idea. God help us.

Solar panels uses 16 times more glass, concrete and steel than nuclear for the equivalent power produced and 300 times more waste than nuclear.