Quote:
Originally Posted by Luckypants
Most of the gas that doesn't come from the North Sea, comes by LNG tankers from the US and Middle East. We do not rely very much on 'european gas' (read Russian). We're so well set up with gas imports and a gas grid that the UK gas suppliers can make money re-gassifying LNG and exporting to Europe when market conditions are right.
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Correct as far as I'm aware. Somewhat ironically, the US gas is generally a by-product left over because of their choice to rely on coal and oil.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig380
Also, UK coal-fired power stations could have been fitted with emissions-reducing equipment in the furnace chimneys: this was actually done very successfully at Drax when it was still a coal-burning plant.
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FGD (Flue Gas Desulphurisation) was also fitted at Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal fired power station - that's why it lasted as long as it did, until earlier this year. The LCPD (Large Combustion Plant Directive) legislation that drove the move away from coal basically had a deadline of 2015 without FGD, and with a fixed total of running hours beyond then. The economics of 'to invest or not in FGD' is essentially what led to (from memory) Ironbridge, Didcot, Ferrybridge, Eggborough closing, and even caused Drax to push on with the somewhat dubious move to biomass wood pellet 'renewable' solution.
Putting aside coal as the fuel, there's the significant matter that any combustion causes large volume carbon dioxide emissions that the atmosphere [allegedly] struggles to cope with. (Yes, I know China, India, US, and other countries don't seem to worry to the same extent as we're being asked to.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig380
...if the wind ain't blowing and the sun isn't shining, we're entirely reliant on gas supplies from Europe.
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Not quite - interconnection keeps getting overlooked yet we've been busy putting in several new links to European countries, wth more in the plan. Across a wide enough geography it's actually very, very rare that the wind isn't blowing somewhere (which is probably why it's become the favoured industrial level technology, noting that scandanavia has a lot of hydro implementation and future potential). The challenge is how much surplus non-operating plant can we collectively afford and where do we put it - again the economics and structure of the marketplace come into play, as well as nimbyism and the politics of 'self-reliance'