ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION and Green Fantasies

[marchesarosa]

What do the Greens say? I have already quoted a large chunk of text in reply#12 of what Greens say. Here it is again! Is it "green" enough?

www.greenerideal.com/alternative-energy/0730-how-much-of-the-uks-electricity-is-generated-via-renewable-resources/

In the first quarter of 2012, renewables accounted for 11.1% of all electricity generated in the United Kingdom. Whilst that initially doesn’t sound like much, it’s actually a marked improvement on the previous year – in the first quarter of 2011, renewables accounted for 7.7% of the UK’s electricity generation. That’s an improvement of 3.4% over the course of 12 months.

Renewable energy includes things like solar power, hydroelectricity and wind power, all viable electricity production methods. If we are to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels in future years then we’ll need to continue this improvement wherever possible, ensuring we’re not constantly utilising finite resources to generate the countries energy.

The vast majority of electricity in the UK is generated via coal, a reliance that has actually increased since Q1 2011. In the first quarter of this year, coal was utilised to generate 42.3% of electricity in the UK, compared to 34.1% in the same period in 2011.

In contrast, the reliance on gas to generate our electricity has dropped since last year – dropping from 37.2% in the first quarter of 2011 to 26.8% in the same period of 2012.

The rest of the electricity used in the UK in 2012 was generated via oil (1.2%, up from 0.8% in the first quarter of 2011) and nuclear (1.73%, down from 18.9% in the first quarter of 2011). Other resources accounted for 1.3% in Q1 2012 and 1.2% in the same period of the previous year.

It is a very positive sign that the percentage of electricity generated via green and renewable energy sources has increased from last year, demonstrating a genuine commitment from the United Kingdom to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and other finite resources. It’s also encouraging to see a drop in the utilisation of nuclear power, although this is probably explained by the closing of Oldbury Power Station in early 2012, combined with regular maintenance outages in the first couple of months of this year.

It’s also worth noting that we seem to be generating slightly less electricity in 2012 compared to last year, as the total electricity generated in the first quarter of 2012 was 3.4% lower than a year earlier – Whether this is down to a drop in demand or problems with electricity generation remains to be seen.

[marchesarosa]

Nick, may I humbly suggest that you delete your posts, interesting though they are, so that the important stuff about electricity generation does not get lost in the affray?

I would be MOST obliged, sir!

www.geog.ox.ac.uk/~dcurtis/NETA.html

[ncsonde]

The figures did not surprise me.

Well, what is it then that you think "makes no sense"?

[ncsonde]

Oct 26, 2012 13:44:27 GMT marchesarosa said:

Nick, may I humbly suggest that you delete your posts, interesting though they are, so that the important stuff about electricity generation does not get lost in the affray?

I would be MOST obliged, sir!

What affray? I'm merely trying to answer pippop's query - which on the face of it seems to be about your importtant stuff about electricity generation. Anways - apparently you can delete my posts yourself, without a by your leave! Why ask this time?

[marchesarosa]

I cannot delete anyone's posts, Nick, apart from my own, which I sometimes do in the interests of not clogging up a thread with off-topic stuff.

You may be unaware that pippop has already complained to admin and had the first version of this thread locked. Clearly she has more pull with admin that you and me. So let's just remove the inessential stuff and leave the valuable data clear and uncluttered. You must be aware that, faute de mieux in the way of evidence, alarmists often resort to tactics like pippop's to derail threads where info they don't like is being imparted.

[ncsonde]

I've never liked the officious "off-topic" brigade. I suggest you let me decide whether I'm on it or not, or whether I'd like to follow it somewhere else, and I'll pay you the same courtesy.

[marchesarosa]

Marchesa's Climate Blog is supposed to be about climate related stuff, Nick, not your inter-board battles with pippop. I would appreciate it if you could comply with my request. I have no sanction just the ability to make a reasonable request.

You can beat pippop up anywhere, but this sub-board is special and I would like to keep it on topic with your assistance, please.


www.geog.ox.ac.uk/~dcurtis/NETA.html

[ncsonde]

Okay - I could only find a couple, though. And both those were directly responding to questions put to me. Unfortunately I cannot censor pippop's posts, however, sorry. And if I could tht would just leave you, wouldn't it? But while we're about it - shall I recommend the half-dozen or so posts I've just skipped through of your own that are similarly off-topic of the "important stuff"? Or shall we leave that to your own judgement?

[marchesarosa]

GB Electricity Generation by Fuel Type (MW)

www.geog.ox.ac.uk/~dcurtis/neta_ALL.html

The graph covers the same generation by fuel type data as the other but it goes back to January 2010. It takes a few seconds to load, so be patient.

p.s. The source of this info is NETA - The New Electricity Trading Arrangements.

www.bmreports.com/bwx_reporting.htm

The above BMRS website provides near real time and historic data about the Balancing Mechanism which is used by the National Grid (System Operator) as a means of balancing power flows on to and off the electricity Transmission System in Great Britain. Again it takes a while to load.

[marchesarosa]

I will clean up my own posts, certainly, Nick.

[ncsonde]

Good idea. Would you care for some more free advice? These self-described "blogs" of yours would be of far greater value - and interest, I think - if you allowed people to criticise what you post. Without you "beating them up" for the privilege.

Just a bit of friendly advice.

[marchesarosa]

Thank you for the advice, Nick. I will try harder!

[marchesarosa]

Here are some world and international comparisons of Electricity generation by fuel type. UK is on table 37.

www.iea.org/stats/surveys/mes.pdf

[marchesarosa]

If you want to know how much electricity the UK was generating from Wind turbines at 11am on Sunday 18th November 2012 it was 2.7%

compared to 43% from Coal, 29% from Gas and 16% from Nuclear.


www.ukenergywatch.org/Electricity/Realtime

[marchesarosa]

Some more pretty pictures and graphs for the ladies about sources of UK electricity generation on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/