The energy crisis: what is the solution?

[tregyblue61]

Ugly as fuck but, hey, it's a start!

SOLCER House

SOLCER House - Designing Buildings - Share your construction industry knowledge. The Welsh School of Architecture designed and built The SOLCER House on the site of Cenin Renewables Ltd in Pyle, near Bridgend in Wales.

www.designingbuildings.co.uk

 

[i kne albert davy]

Being able to control exploding populations would be our best bet long term.

 

[Kompany Car]

One thing that needs to go is this romantacised idea that our landscape was so beautiful in the past that solar farms and wind farms mar the view.

A century ago our country was covered in smog and polluted air, the hills and valleys people say would look ugly on the skyline with a load of turbines on them couldn't even be seen through the brown haze of thick industrlial air

Absolutely and there is no free ride with any renewable. Wind turbines don't look great, there are still issues with noise if you are relatively nearby, they can affect migration paths of birds etc and you need to look at the levels of embedded carbon in their construction.
Solar has nasty chemicals involved in the construction of the panels.
Hydro and tidal can damage eco systems, pumped storage hydroelectric has an issue with greenhouse gas emissions due to rotting plant matter in the storage ponds.
There are no options with no environmental impact.

 

[Kompany Car]

Clearly it is paramount for countries to have a secure energy supply as the current reliance on countries that are essentially enemies is a disaster.

What should be the long term solution? My opinion is that nuclear generated energy should be the top priority and The Telegraph are reporting tonight that as well as multiple new nuclear power stations being built by 2050 the government is looking at lots of mini nuclear reactors being built by Elon Musk far sooner. In addition, I'd definitely look at fracking as an option and we need to bin Net Zero immediately.

I'd imagine this doesn't square with most eco warriors world view but the current events injects an urgent dose of painful reality into the equation.

We don't really need Elon Musk to develop mini reactors, we have a number of safe, very advanced reactors, developed in Derby by Rolls Royce which are currently powering our Astute class subs.
There was a plan to use these some years back for generation but it was shelved.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Every newly built house should have solar pannelled roofs and a mini wind turbine to power themselves.

For older houses the government should provide grants to do upgrades, and not loft insulation, proper upgrades to power homes, like air pumps and solar.

Though if all our homes were powered mainly by themselves and renewables energy created, big business wouldn't make as much profits so this will bever happen.

While energy production and distribution is a private enterprise based on profit we are all screwed.

A lot of gigantic profits would then go missing and we can’t have that…….

 

[west didsblue]

Clearly it is paramount for countries to have a secure energy supply as the current reliance on countries that are essentially enemies is a disaster.

What should be the long term solution? My opinion is that nuclear generated energy should be the top priority and The Telegraph are reporting tonight that as well as multiple new nuclear power stations being built by 2050 the government is looking at lots of mini nuclear reactors being built by Elon Musk far sooner. In addition, I'd definitely look at fracking as an option and we need to bin Net Zero immediately.

I'd imagine this doesn't square with most eco warriors world view but the current events injects an urgent dose of painful reality into the equation.

Nuclear weans us off fossil fuels and helps to get us to net zero. Why would anyone want to bin it?

 

[Corky]

Solar panels would improve the EER/SAP by 11 which is clearly not enough and the big improvements needed are heat pumps which are pretty expensive.

Even new houses are mainly B and flats more likely to be C, as no one wants to pay the extra cost to meet A.

Building reg changes are implemented this year to Part L with more to come by 2025 for net zero, it has to come from legislation or it won't happen though as there is not the demand from buyers to pay more so it won't be market driven.

 

[chesterbells]

Being able to control exploding populations would be our best bet long term.

It’s happening mate; birth rates coming down over most of the world.
Gapminder is a great resource for anyone interested in world trends and data .

 

[Big Joe Corrigan]

We don't really need Elon Musk to develop mini reactors, we have a number of safe, very advanced reactors, developed in Derby by Rolls Royce which are currently powering our Astute class subs.
There was a plan to use these some years back for generation but it was shelved.

The company I work for have been involved with SMRs for a number of years.

 

[chesterbells]

Ugly as fuck but, hey, it's a start!

SOLCER House

SOLCER House - Designing Buildings - Share your construction industry knowledge. The Welsh School of Architecture designed and built The SOLCER House on the site of Cenin Renewables Ltd in Pyle, near Bridgend in Wales.

www.designingbuildings.co.uk

Very interesting that. I expected to read it has triple glazed window, but doesn’t seem to. I like the idea of building all new houses with a south facing aspect!

 

[tregyblue61]

Being able to control exploding populations would be our best bet long term.

Year 1800 the world population was about 1 billion

100 years ago, about 2 billion

Now it's 8 billion.

World population is growing by 1 billion every 12 years or so. The population growth rate is actually slowing from around 2.2% in the early 60's to around 1.1% now. Still too many though.

 

[Invisible Man's Bandage]

We don't really need Elon Musk to develop mini reactors, we have a number of safe, very advanced reactors, developed in Derby by Rolls Royce which are currently powering our Astute class subs.
There was a plan to use these some years back for generation but it was shelved.

The Rolls Royce designs are in the mix but seemingly the Elon Musk reactors have potential advantages.

 

[west didsblue]

The Rolls Royce designs are in the mix but seemingly the Elon Musk reactors have potential advantages.

Lots of companies are developing SMRs.
Our government should be investing in U.K. technology not buying it off self publicist blowhards like Musk.

 

[Kompany Car]

The Rolls Royce designs are in the mix but seemingly the Elon Musk reactors have potential advantages.

For existing "proven" reactor designs, the Generic Design Assessment process can easily take 5yrs to complete which is required for the operational safety case. If its something new and novel you could be looking at double that.
That's why the new nuclear sites use existing designs e.g they were using a Chinese design for Hinkley which is effectively an erm "stolen" French design.

 

[zandvoort blue]

So I need a new boiler - or do I go for a heat pump? It`s a no brainer unless you`ve unlimited funds.

A new combi boiler would cost me just over £2,000. Whereas expect to pay between £8,000 to £16,000 for an air source heat pump installation on a new build property and up to nearly £28,000 on an existing property — that does include upgrading all the radiators and replacing quite a bit of the pipework.

You're looking at around £14,000 to £25,000 for installing a ground source heat pump, and possibly more if you need a large borehole collector.


Similarly I`d like a new car, do I go traditional fuel or electric? Based on cost the electric version is well over £10,000 more. As much as I`d like to save the planet I can`t afford to.

So the be all and end all of this is affordability and looking after number 1. That is unless the prohibitive costs are reduced to make the newer technology cheaper than the traditional out dated gas boilers and petrol driven cars. But we all know that isn`t going to happen any time soon.

So in the short term - the answer is there is no solution.

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

Repopulating our forests is something we need to crack on with, I would start with trafford, knock down that shithole swamp and trafforrd park and also the wanky shopping centre and plant trees on both sites meeting in the middle

Pretty please can I be the one that presses down the big TNT plunger, Looney Tunes style?

 

[i kne albert davy]

Every newly built house should have solar pannelled roofs and a mini wind turbine to power themselves.

For older houses the government should provide grants to do upgrades, and not loft insulation, proper upgrades to power homes, like air pumps and solar.

Though if all our homes were powered mainly by themselves and renewables energy created, big business wouldn't make as much profits so this will bever happen.

While energy production and distribution is a private enterprise based on profit we are all screwed.

I wouldn't have an air source heat pump fitted to an older house especially one that uninsulated for all the tea in China unless you fancy sitting in thermals and a parka.

 

[i kne albert davy]

It’s happening mate; birth rates coming down over most of the world.
Gapminder is a great resource for anyone interested in world trends and data .

It may be slowing down in places 6 billion at the millennium almost 9 billion today we are the cause of climate change and energy shortages there's no getting away from that.

 

[waspish]

A typical home uses approximately 10,649 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year (about 877 kilowatt-hours per month). Depending on the average wind speed in the area, a wind turbine rated in the range of 5–15 kilowatts would be required to make a significant contribution to this demand.

So one one of these on your house would do it then? [emoji2]

9000W No Noise Vertical Magnetic Levitation Upright Wind Turbine, 24V-220V with Waterproof Charge Controller 3 Blades for Home Use Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Amazon product ASIN B098JN1GLN

 

[chesterbells]

It may be slowing down in places 6 billion at the millennium almost 9 billion today we are the cause of climate change and energy shortages there's no getting away from that.

Oh yes, agreed. It will most likely peak 11-12 billion, just because of the number of people already here who are of and yet to reach child bearing age. But we are where we are, and numbers of children per woman are coming down. I’m just trying to be glass half full I suppose.