Would've been nice to see him quoting Bartlett like your signature. Just imagine Brown saying "actually, I do think that the greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function".Adam1 wrote:He didn't mention anything about renewing the grid here in the UK or (especially pertinent given that he was addressing his counterparts from other European and Mediterranean countries) the high-voltage DC super-grid we need to move excess production of northern wind and southern concentrating solar.
Gordon Brown: Zero to Hero?
Moderator: Peak Moderation
"If we don't change our direction, we are likely to wind up where we are headed" (Chinese Proverb)
As we do have the best wind resource on the planet off our West coast, we'd be dumb not to use it. Best place for BIG windmills IHMO. Though I wouldnt like to see the WHOLE of onshore Uk studded with giant whirligigs.biffvernon wrote:Spent the evening at our beach hut. We can now see 49 wind turbines out at sea. Marvelous.
If you want a small one in your backgarden, thats fine too, I think. The sooner the ability of planning authorities to refuse permission on personal windmills up to a certain modest size is removed, the better.
Yes, that would be something, particularly if it was backed up by actions and policies that displayed a genuine understanding of the implications of the exponential function.Erik wrote:Would've been nice to see him quoting Bartlett like your signature. Just imagine Brown saying "actually, I do think that the greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function".Adam1 wrote:He didn't mention anything about renewing the grid here in the UK or (especially pertinent given that he was addressing his counterparts from other European and Mediterranean countries) the high-voltage DC super-grid we need to move excess production of northern wind and southern concentrating solar.
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emordnilap
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http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/forum/vie ... c978954858skeptik wrote:The sooner the ability of planning authorities to refuse permission on personal windmills up to a certain modest size is removed, the better.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
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careful_eugene
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Re: Gordon Brown: Zero to Hero?
I'm guessing he means companies that manufacture cars here eg Toyota and Honda. If anyone is going to mass produce decent electric cars it would be these two at the top of the list.skeptik wrote:er... what "British motor industry"? I thought we'd sold it all years ago.clv101 wrote:This is a pretty amazing speech:
Maybe he's thinking of Caterham
Paid up member of the Petite bourgeoisie
Re: Gordon Brown: Zero to Hero?
OK. I'll rephrase that for Gordon then. "The Japanese motor industry's screwdriver plants in the UK"careful_eugene wrote: I'm guessing he means companies that manufacture cars here eg Toyota and Honda.
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biffvernon
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The proper categories are: Sun, tidal and geothermal. All others are derived from those three.contadino wrote:Hydro, tidal, biomass...?emordnilap wrote:There's that word again. Sun and wind are the only two, GB.Today our globalised, energy-hungry and warming world requires a shift from oil dependence to sustainable energy.
Hydro, wind and biomass are derived from sun. Tidal is really derived from the movement of the moon, but there are no other expressions of this than tidal.
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emordnilap
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Whatever. It's the use of this catch-all word 'sustainability' and its ugly sister 'sustainable development' that needs tackling. It's ten times worse than 'at this moment in time' and 'at the end of the day' and 'win win'.
People talk about the sustainable use of coal, for instance! And GB includes nuclear in his personal definition.
Quoting from the interview with Dennis Meadows sums it up:
People talk about the sustainable use of coal, for instance! And GB includes nuclear in his personal definition.
Quoting from the interview with Dennis Meadows sums it up:
He goes on to point out that what the GBs of this world really mean is 'sustainable growth', which is yet another oxymoron.Despite its incredibly widespread use, the phrase ‘sustainable development’ is really not understood by anybody; it’s a meaningless term. It’s, if I may say so, been seized on by a large number of people who use it, since it is meaningless, to justify whatever they were going to do already anyway. The only attempt I know to define ‘sustainable development’ is the one that was undertaken by the Bruntland commission, they came up with this term, which is, “sustainable development is the process of satisfying all your needs now without sacrificing the ability of future generations to satisfy their needs”.
Well, my gosh, what a fabulous thing that is for a politician, you know, it lets a politician, in the name of sustainable development, try and promise to satisfy all your needs today and not have to worry about the future, because they’re going to be able to take care of themselves. This is just a fantasy.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Where have you looked? Try here http://www.restats.org.uk/capacity.htm. OK, so the absolute figures aren't huge but the growth rates are pretty startling.Adam1 wrote:Like some others, I'll get over my cynicism when I see more actual stuff being built.
National Grid's job, not the Government's, for which we should all be heartily thankful given the almighty pig's ear they'd make of it. How does £5 billion over five years grab you?He didn't mention anything about renewing the grid here in the UK or (especially pertinent given that he was addressing his counterparts from other European and Mediterranean countries) the high-voltage DC super-grid we need to move excess production of northern wind and southern concentrating solar.
http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Media/FactSheet ... RDec06.pdf