David MacKay

[emordnilap]

Oh! well. The salad crop will be ready soon to take the place of the chutney.

We've had salad greens continuously in the polytunnel throughout winter.

I need to work on that.

Do you use bubble wrap in addition on very cold nights.

It's just occurred to me that you are in a maritime are of Ireland so probably don't know what a very cold night is!

Yeah, maybe half a dozen nights below zero (and then only a couple of degrees below) this entire winter.

I'll list the plants that did well.

[kenneal - lagger]

We aren't far off your number of nights below zero but we have had much colder temperatures, -10C.

I can hear VT laughing already!!

I would appreciate your crop list.

[woodburner]

A lump of hard cheese is good, it also cleans your teeth and neutralises the acids from starches.

This is a good point and one which makes sense of the English habit of eating cheese as the last course in a meal rather than the French one of eating it before the sweet course.

Not much good if you have cheese and biscuits though. Dump the biscuits, that way you get rid of the starches and the hydrogenated vegetable oils.

[emordnilap]

We aren't far off your number of nights below zero but we have had much colder temperatures, -10C.

I can hear VT laughing already!!

I would appreciate your crop list.

Some of the names are suspect but this is a rough list of the salads we've been eating from the PT over winter:

Mustard greens: purple osaka, curly leaf
Lambs' lettuce (corn salad)
Texel greens
Oriental greens: sesantina, misuna
Hardy lettuce: four seasons
Purslane (claytonia)
Chard: ladak, rainbow, red, yellow
Spinach
Pak choi

We've had a few flowers growing too, the petals of which decorate the salad, though their names escape me at the mom. All this stuff is from organic sources and grown as such.

The chard cooks like spinach and I prefer it for its stronger taste: trouble is, it took a carrier bag full just for a pasta, spinach, garlic and lentil dish for two last night. Delicious though.

[vtsnowedin]

We aren't far off your number of nights below zero but we have had much colder temperatures, -10C.

I can hear VT laughing already!!

I would appreciate your crop list.

You are quite correct.

[PS_RalphW]

David came out of the nuclear closet before he died.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... vid-mackay

He lacked the vision to so beyond BAU to the end.

[clv101]

Indeed, his 'too much land' criticism is particularly weak.

I upset him a few years ago with this:
http://chrisvernon.co.uk/2011/10/a-lot- ... ear-power/

[Pepperman]

it's also disappointing that he was still quoting 125kWh per person per day of primary energy as some sort of target for renewables supply.

Firstly, primary energy has already dropped to 100kWh per person per day since SEWTHA was written in 2008. (ETA: he was probably using 2006 data when he wrote it)

Secondly, and most importantly, being primary energy this includes a load of heat that's frittered away up smokestacks and exhaust pipes and does no useful work. Wind and solar don't have this problem. You need about 1.1 units of wind or solar energy to deliver 1 unit of useful electricity whereas you need about 3 units of coal energy or 2 units of natural gas energy to deliver 1 unit of useful electricity. Likewise you need about 3 units of oil to deliver 1 unit of useful transport energy.

Primary energy is not a good yardstick to compare renewable generation against.

[clv101]

I think it's clear MacKay held a bias against renewables. Many thought his approach 'realistic' and applauded him for it.

[Pepperman]

I think his main bias was "lowest cost, zero carbon" where cost was purely based on costs per MWh and not total system costs. Back in 2008, new nuclear probably seemed like a sensible way forwards if you were that way inclined, but as it turns out the industry seems totally incapable of delivering on its promises (it must be getting embarrassing now).

My favoured (but apparently delusional) approach would be to go all out on efficiency and then build out a lot of renewables, interconnectors and storage as well as reigning in aviation which would gives us some emissions headroom to allow some unabated gas to cover the lulls. If the nuclear industry can get its act together then a nuke or two wouldn't hurt in that mix.

I'd love to know what the total system costs of that scenario would be versus going all out on nukes / CCS, with the inevitably weak action on efficiency that would follow from such a supply mix.

The funny thing is that the DECC 2050 Pathways calculator (which McKay made happen) supports the feasibility of a high renewables pathway. Now I know it was a very simple engagement tool, but it seems strange to label high renewables pathways as delusional and have that tool suggesting that they're feasible.

[RenewableCandy]

Apparently he also provided the statistical analysis that proved 'professor' 'sir' Meadows wrong in the Cot Death case. Remember, the guy whose testemony basically said the woman must be guilty because the probability of 2 cot deaths happening in one family is 1 in 73,000,000 (iirc), because he assumed statistical independence...

[biffvernon]

In that case MacKay did humanity a great service and I forgive him his other errors.