Blackouts

Ed Milliband yesterday refused to rule out a blanket ban on coal power stations.

There's good reasons for this - when assessed against the conditions imposed upon electricity generators by the government.

Probably the largest though is security of supply. Yes - I don't want global warming, and yes - if it happens - it will be hugely expensive.
Can you imagine how expensive it will be if we don't have electricity?

The national grid yesterday warned of regular rolling blackouts. This is no myth - everyone is talking about the energy gap.

Just a quick graphic to show how large the problem is (taken from the RWE factbook (it's easy to find on the web).

The blue shows how much electricity is being generated (read it with the vertical axis on the left) whilst the grey line shows how much is spare (used when plants are offline being serviced, or when peak demand rises above long term projections). That can be read with the vertical axis on the right.
As you can see we'll run out of electricity just in time for the opening ceremony of the 2012 olympic games.

Ofcourse this is with no new build - and remember that renewables can be expected to fill some of this gap - but I believe the timescales involved (when compared against the timescales for windpower grid connections) mean that coal and nuclear (on existing sites with current grid connections) must play a role - right Mr. Miliband?

Nepal

I've just spent the last three weeks kayaking in Nepal. It's been great fun, and a bit of an eye opener.

Nepal is a third world country, and is not as well off as India. It felt as though tourism keeps the country going. I know that there have been some political problems there recently, but I have to say that we only encountered friendship (unless money was involved when people generally did anything to get as much as possible).
I'd love to go back.

Nepal generates some of its power with hydroelectric dams. Since the monsoon has just about ended there is still plenty of water in the rivers and the dams are generating plenty of juice. As the season progresses they will generate less and less.
I'm not sure if Nepal has any back-up generation - I guess that it must.

I do know that it is reliant upon India for much of its electricity. I know this because in one particular town (Dumre) the electricity clicked off every evening between around 6 and 9pm.
When we asked why we were told "India". Essentially India reduces the electricity it sends to Nepal during these hours - it needs it for its own population. Nepal reacts the only way in which it can, by cutting people off.
The larger buildings had their own generators, but most people just lit candles.

This, of course, is just after the monsoon, when the dams are generating at near their maximum capacity. Things can only get worse.

How does this relate to coal? Directly, it doesn't.

It does suggest to me though that the need in Nepal for electricity is greater than the need to reduce emissions (after all Nepal is a developing nation and must be permitted to increase its emissions).
Given the option (which may not exist for coal since they only have small coal [lignite] deposits) I would expect them to build a power station whenever possible.

What I'm saying is this - coal can be part of the problem or part of the solution. If we, as rich western nations, take no action and leave it all to the poorer countries in the world it will probably become part of the problem.

That is why I support Kingsnorth.