Energy price rises

[Stephen]

For those of you with log burners... there used to be a product that compressed sodden newspapers into bricks. They took ages to dry out but, once they were ready, you'd put them in your log burner and they'd last for ages. I don't know if it's still being marketed, but it was a great way getting rid of old newspapers and providing free heat.

Thanks for the tip Alan, but I use our old papers for clothing insulation

[AngieT]

Maybe we should all invest in Onesies? Horrible things - my niece left one at her parents when she moved out & the dog now carries it around with him - makes a good blanket for his dog basket!

[Kendhni]

I see they have announced a new nuclear power station ... I still haven't worked out if it will be good or bad for prices but glad that we are seeing some investment in power generation ... It is just a pity that it could not have been built and funded by a British company

[royalprincess]

I've been trying to switch for five days now having spent days persuading OH that it was cost effective to do so. OH wont do it online so have phoned comparison sites - all are busy (this is before price rises were announced) and am still waiting for call backs. I will not be cold so a switch is necessary or its one less cruise a year.

I just shudder to think of what the impoverished amongst us are going to do. If you are not on line (and some parts of the country cannot get broadband or a mobile signal) you are being excluded - this is unfair and so is the £2m bonus - for what. Bonuses of this size should not exist whilst the rest of the country are struggling and its not just the poor who are now struggling. According to news reports - its the so called "middle classes" as well

[Andrea S]

Logs,coal and an open fire.
Sunday afternoon burning your hand holding a toasting fork or curled up watching the flickering flames. Just memories for me.

[davecttr]

I see they have announced a new nuclear power station ... I still haven't worked out if it will be good or bad for prices but glad that we are seeing some investment in power generation ... It is just a pity that it could not have been built and funded by a British company

Apparently by the time the thing gets built electricity prices will have doubled so we won't be paying any more than we would anyway. If the prices rise further it might well be cheaper to generate electricity from nuclear so theoretically prices could go down. Meanwhile it should cost us nothing as all the moneys foreign.

Hands up who thinks this would happen!.

[Dark Knight]

perhaps we should have gone down this route 30 years ago, before the tree huggers started harping on
then we might have had a sustainable energy policy

[Onelife]

Yes DK and we’ll have a life time to regret it while other countries get rich providing us with what should have been our own sustainable energy.

[Dark Knight]

more money for the French and Chinese
wont be long before China owns most of the western world

[Kendhni]

I see they have announced a new nuclear power station ... I still haven't worked out if it will be good or bad for prices but glad that we are seeing some investment in power generation ... It is just a pity that it could not have been built and funded by a British company

Apparently by the time the thing gets built electricity prices will have doubled so we won't be paying any more than we would anyway. If the prices rise further it might well be cheaper to generate electricity from nuclear so theoretically prices could go down. Meanwhile it should cost us nothing as all the moneys foreign.

Hands up who thinks this would happen!.

I was wondering about the reporting of those figures and whether or not they were in today's prices or projected for when the plant would be completed. Either way it sounds like they expect the price of energy to double in the next 10 or so years.

[gilly88]

surely the building of an energy plant should take priority over the hs2 rail link. then the money could be diverted from that.

[Onelife]

Hi gilly88

I have mixed felling about Hs2 not from an environmental point of view, although I do feel those affected by the construction of Hs2 should be compensated adequately. I am however concerned about how much it will cost and like you wonder if the money would be better spent investing on projects such as nuclear power without having to rely largely on overseas help....I’m starting to feel like we are the poor men of Europe if not the World... have things got so bad that we can no longer finance our own internal infrastructure?

Either way what is important is that we don’t waste more money on something that isn’t guaranteed to give us a return on our investment. So in answer to your question I think we should hold back for a few years until such time that we have a Government/ministers who know what they are doing before taking that leap of faith.

Regards

Keith

[davecttr]

I think guaranteeing energy supplies is to important to keep putting off. If the new nuclear station will provide 7% of the electricity we should be building at least 5 of them. We should also be investing heavily in advanced hydrocarbon extraction including fracking, coal, tidal and solar. what we need is not to put all our eggs in one basket.

Unfortunately the government know what they are doing, fighting the next election campaign. Politics gets in the way of common sense.

[Kendhni]

Dave, that is pretty much what the energy minister has said ... the problem is the NIMBYism and pseudo-greenies who have been wrapping pretty much every decision up in legislation for decades.

[Silver_Shiney]

Keith, I fear we will have to wait more than a few years for a government that knows what it's doing.....

[Onelife]

I think guaranteeing energy supplies is to important to keep putting off. If the new nuclear station will provide 7% of the electricity we should be building at least 5 of them. We should also be investing heavily in advanced hydrocarbon extraction including fracking, coal, tidal and solar. what we need is not to put all our eggs in one basket.

Unfortunately the government know what they are doing, fighting the next election campaign. Politics gets in the way of common sense.

Hi Davidttr

It dose make you wonder how much better off this country would be if we didn’t have politicians spending considerable amount of time and money trying to discredit/undo what the other party is trying to achieve. I‘ve never been able to get my head around a system that allows people with no expertise in their ministerial role to hold down that job in the first place...surly our country would be better served by having politician who have an in-depth knowledge of what they are supposed to be overseeing?

Anyway back on topic...As I have said earlier I do think the way forward is to build more new nuclear power stations but whilst doing that we need to take every opportunity to ensure we get things right at grass roots level...By this I mean the Government have given the go ahead to build thousands of new homes, what they haven’t done is to make it a stipulation of planning that all of these house should be fitted with solar panels...it would be another missed opportunity in reducing energy consumption should they not have the foresight to do this.

Regards

Keith

[Onelife]

Good morning Mr Shinny

We live in hope...but I'm fast running out of breath and patience

[davecttr]

Dave, that is pretty much what the energy minister has said ... the problem is the NIMBYism and pseudo-greenies who have been wrapping pretty much every decision up in legislation for decades.

Ooops, and i thought it all out on my own. Does this make me a hated politician?

Re NIMBYism the people in west Cumbria would love to have a couple of new nuclear stations to replace Sellafield. Up there the nuclear industry has provided many well paid jobs for several decades plus the amount of money it pumps into the local economy.

I have a cousin living there who spent his entire career working at either Sellafield or Vickers in Barrow (nuclear subs) depending who offered the best salary package. his son works there too

Solar power has interesting possibilities such as panels that in urban areas deliver power from infra red given off from buildings etc so you get power even during the night!.

Then we have battery technology. New technologies have the potential to deliver amazing storage capacities and really fast recharge from small packages. Fancy an electric car with a 500 mile range and 10 minute recharge time?