Indeed...

Speak for yourself. I'm as 'umble as can be, me.

Norway link coming too. Hydrotastic.

http://www.sse.com/PressReleases2011/ProposedGB-NorwayInterconnector/

Or theirs closer to ours?

Rgds

Damon

I hope ours go up, it is the only way to reduce demand, it really is.

Posted By: JoinerRight, that's one turkey voting for Christmas

I have Cheese Sandwiches on that day.

If domestic energy was to double in price, from say £1000pa to £2000pa, and it cost £800 to insulate and draftproof, fit some timers etc, even year one would show a saving. Would take a bit of planning for most people (people panic and do things when they have to i.e. when it is cold and the bill, they think is high, comes in).

I think I could skip the 25th December that way

Just to reiterate, my EDF standard E7 has gone up by less that inflation over the last 7 years, or in English, it has got cheaper.
Have also managed to use about half over the last couple of years, despite there being twice as many people in the house. Most through education my lodger (remember those 30 to 40 minute showers, I can have a bath again now Freakonomics), some simple, but effective energy management as well as some simple and very effective draft exclusion and insulation. The only thing that really cost money (about £600) was changing all the old blown DG glazing to newer ones, and I get the advantage that I can see out the windows (though one has blown but worked out why, so that will be sorted).

If we were serious about energy reduction, then we would welcome a tax on it, what we don't want to see is profiteering by the utility companies

The 'promised' benefit of interconnectors are that intermittent renewables in one place get backed-up by somewhere else. So Uk sells wind power to Norway when it is windy, buys back hydro power when its not windy.

This is how Denmark has achieved such high %s of wind power, it is backed up by coal and nuclear power from Germany and hydro form Norway as the grids are all linked together.

To some extent, though they have ~25% non-nukes of which some is load-following, and at least some (expensively I suspect) load-following nuke. IIRC...

But yes, GB seemed to be propping up France with a lot of coal power earlier this year from my reading of the figures...

Rgds

Damon

Posted By: DamonHDTo some extent, though they have ~25% non-nukes of which some is load-following, and at least some (expensively I suspect) load-following nuke. IIRC...

They also have a higher base load, as the government has actively encouraged more widespread use of electricity than here. It's not as unusual to use electricity for heating and DHW there as it is here.

ST: PS? Pumped storage? I'm not sure how much they have, it would make sense to use nuclear overnight to pump for storage. The only one I know of for sure is the Rance tidal barrage.

Not so sure that the French government actively pushes electricity - more that there aren't too many options for the bulk of the population in the countryside. We had tanked gas, but it was devilishly expensive and when we renovated our house we stripped out the central heating and replaced it with electric heaters. Most unusual for the French, we asked EDF for an increase in our supply (you pay a higher monthly amount for higher KW rating!!), but they couldn't actually give us what we wanted, so if all the heaters, cookers, etc, in the house and Gite are switched on together we have to keep resetting the mains switch!! The classic french house has a single light bulb (no shade) - often a fluorescent fitting - in their main living room, anything to keep their consumption down!!

La Rance barrage only generates one way, initially it was meant to work on both tides but had 'efficiency' problems, so the turbines where 'wielded up' and it plods along.

If the French export to us at night, we can use it to pump, as can other in Europe.

When it comes to electrical energy, thinking big, very big, is the way to go.

I was recently down by a river that would be fantastic for a small hydro, about 30-50kW, noticed that there where a couple of houses that had PV on them, less that 200m away. What a missed opportunity.

The EA rules are pretty clear cut, though they do tend to restrict what can be done. There is a nice little 200kW unit near Stithians, luckily the local landowners were on boards for pipe burying and they could use the existing leats left over from the old gunpowder factories. Cost about a £1/Watt (about the same as PV is now) I seem to remember, but churns out 1.5GWh/year.