Energy firms adding £242 to domestic bills as profits soar

Anyone feeling the financial strain of high energy bills, whether the charges are blamed mainly on subsidies or other factors, won’t find this pleasant reading. Tariff Watch says its report is ‘revealing the secret data behind Britain’s broken energy system’.
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Energy companies’ operating costs are making up a substantial portion of customers’ bills, says Energy Live News.

On average, these operating costs add £242 to each customer’s annual energy bill, accounting for approximately 13% of the total bill, according to a report from the Warm This Winter Tariff Watch.

The report indicates that energy firms are allocating a considerable chunk of their operating costs to marketing activities.

This category encompasses expenses related to sponsoring football teams, event venues and the creation of television adverts.

Beer faces unbitter future due to climate change, study claims

Another day, another manufactured climate scare! This time it features a popular (in the UK and Ireland at least) style of beer, but before crying bitter tears, note the last sentence of the article: ‘Brewers can also try to modify their methods to adapt to the reduced bitterness in hops’.
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Climate change threatens the cultivation in Europe of aromatic hops which gives beer its bitterness, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications.

European varieties of hops are prized and used by brewers around the world, but rising temperatures and less rain are reducing yields and the concentration of the compounds that provide beer its refreshing tartness, says Phys.org.

The researchers observed this trend by analyzing data from five sites in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovakia, which along with Poland are the primary hops growers in Europe, study co-author Miroslav Trnka said.

The Sun’s Magnetic Poles are Vanishing (again)

The Sun’s Magnetic Poles are Vanishing

The Sun usually finds ways to keep the pundits guessing.

World can’t ‘unplug’ existing energy system: COP28 head

Will the never-ending annual COP show series ever get to grips with the utter inadequacy of renewables? Or of the uselessness of blaming trace gases for the weather, as the globe-trotting hordes of delegates produce ever more of them to get to and from the venue?
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The president of the upcoming COP28 climate talks in Dubai called on Sunday for governments to abandon “fantasies” such as hastily ditching existing energy infrastructure in pursuit of climate goals, reports Phys.org.

“We cannot unplug the energy system of today before we build the new system of tomorrow. It is simply not practical or possible,” Sultan Al Jaber said during the opening session of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Climate Week, a UN-organized conference hosted in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

“We must separate facts from fiction, reality from fantasies, impact from ideology, and we must ensure that we avoid the traps of division and distraction.”

Much of international climate diplomacy revolves around the thorny issue of how and when to quit fossil fuels.

Has the Sun’s true role in global warming been miscalculated?

Nice day

Of course the IPCC’s preferred idea is that the Sun can be ignored as a variable in climate influence, and all attention should focus on minor trace gases (mainly CO2 at 0.04%) in the atmosphere. A recent study by Spencer & Christy weighed in on a related topic: Our new climate sensitivity paper has been published, which proposes that actual observations indicate significant IPCC over-estimation of (theoretical) non-solar climate factors.
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A new international study published in the scientific peer-reviewed journal, Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, by 20 climate researchers from 12 countries suggests that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) might have substantially underestimated the role of the Sun in global warming, says Ceres-Science.

The article began as a response to a 2022 commentary on an extensive review of the causes of climate change published in 2021.

The original review (Connolly and colleagues, 2021) had suggested that the IPCC reports had inadequately accounted for two major scientific concerns when they were evaluating the causes of global warming since the 1850s:

The global temperature estimates used in the IPCC reports are contaminated by urban warming biases.

The estimates of solar activity changes since the 1850s considered by the IPCC substantially downplayed a possible large role for the Sun.

On this basis, the 2021 review had concluded that it was not scientifically valid for the IPCC to rule out the possibility that global warming might be mostly natural.

Chris Packham issues legal challenge against Rishi Sunak

Photosynthesis [image credit: Nefronus @ Wikipedia]

Climate lawfare by carbophobes again. ‘The ball is in your court, Prime Minister’. At the same time the Scottish Nationalists have reported the PM to the police over comments in his conference speech.
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Chris Packham has sent a legal challenge to the Prime Minister over his decision to delay the phase-out of new gas boilers and petrol and diesel cars, reports The National (via Yahoo News).

If Rishi Sunak does not reverse the changes he announced last month, Packham said he will apply to the High Court to challenge this in a judicial review – arguing that such a delay is unlawful given the Government is required to follow a series of carbon budget plans on the way to becoming net zero by 2050.

The Prime Minister said the sale of new fossil fuel cars will not be phased out in 2030 but in 2035 and that only 80% of gas boilers will need to be phased out by that date, instead of 100%.

NSW fireghters foil fire risk at smoking green energy unit

Credit: mgathermal.com

Storing electricity, e.g. from renewables, is an ongoing headache with a recurring problem. If things go wrong ‘hazardous materials crews’ may be needed, along with a ‘bulk carbon dioxide tanker’ to cool things down – spot the irony. The company’s aim of ‘Making 24/7 renewables a reality’ is looking a tad optimistic.
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Firefighters have called in expert technicians to help deal with a dangerous heat build-up at a cutting-edge renewable energy storage plant but the incident has been stabilised, reports The New Daily.

MGA Thermal is behind a new form of thermal energy storage that allows retrofitted coal-fired power stations to distribute renewable energy long after it was produced.

But the company had to call in firefighters on Friday morning at its demonstrator plant in the Tomago industrial area, north of Newcastle.

Initial assessments of over-heating machinery led to the evacuation of 15 businesses.

To study atmosphere, NASA rockets will fly into October eclipse’s shadow

Annular eclipse [image credit: Smrgeog @ Wikipedia]

This is part 1 – part 2 is next April.
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A NASA sounding rocket mission will launch three rockets during the 2023 annular eclipse in October to study how the sudden drop in sunlight affects our upper atmosphere, says Phys.org.

On Oct. 14, 2023, viewers of an annular solar eclipse in the Americas will experience the sun dimming to 10% its normal brightness, leaving only a bright “ring of fire” of sunlight as the moon eclipses the sun.

Those in the vicinity of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, however, might also notice sudden bright streaks across the sky: trails of scientific rockets, hurtling toward the eclipse’s shadow.

A NASA sounding rocket mission will launch three rockets to study how the sudden drop in sunlight affects our upper atmosphere.

Six companies chosen for UK nuclear tech contest

SMR transporter

There’s a yawning gap of a decade or so between the end of UK coal-fired power stations in late 2024 and the hoped-for arrival of its potential replacement, new SMR nuclear power.
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Six companies have been selected to advance in the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) competition, reports Energy Live News.

Among the chosen contenders are industry giants like EDF, Rolls Royce and GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy International LLC.

The SMR competition aligns with the government’s strategic plan to revitalise nuclear power.

The government’s ambition is to have up to a quarter of all UK electricity generated from nuclear power by 2050.

Motorway service stations hiring staff to police surging levels of EV ‘charge rage’

Image credit: motorwayservices.uk

Net zero chaos: the UK grid just can’t meet current(!) EV requirements at busy travel times. Good luck if such a time happens to be a windless day. Electricity can’t easily be stored at the service station, like liquid fuels – who knew?
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Britain’s biggest motorway service station provider has brought in marshals to police “charge rage” among electric vehicle drivers battling for access to plug-in points, reports The Telegraph.

Moto chief executive Ken McMeikan warned the UK’s motorway service stations are facing growing “public disorder” due to a lack of grid connections preventing him from installing enough car chargers to meet the surge in demand.

It means many motorists are facing long waits, with angry drivers confronting staff and each other over the lack of charging facilities.