Electric cars.

Yet. For an awful lot of people, there is no barrier to buying an EV, other than cost and willingness. As I intimated earlier, the car we now have was primarily bought to tow the caravan. The time will come when I need to replace the car, as is usual. At that point I’ll need to make the decision about whether or not I want to carry on towing, probably not. At that point I’ll make the jump. It will mean I’ll have to have a home charger, but that’s ok, it’s not a great outlay considering the return. Ironically, considering I won’t have to ‘go and fill up’, range anxiety will be a thing of the past. Other than the very rare occasion, I can’t see me needing to use public charging points. Whilst I realise that not everyone will be able to do that, an awful lot of folks can, maybe 50% of households? Ultimately, these things have a way of sorting themselves out, I think. As @JWK said, it’s just about changing one’s mindset.

 

And yet, solar and wind power outstripped gas as a means to generate electricity?

 

Makes you wonder why we are paying so much for it then.
So lets get rid of gas, we cant and never will, because often the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.

I really don't want to see the whole country disappear under solar panels and windmills.

You cant grow much food under a solar panel either.

 

You think that investment in solar, wind and nuclear comes for free? It all has to be paid for.
As far as I know, no new onshore wind farms are allowed.

 

Yes. Thing is, I’m not getting any younger (now 68). I’m guessing that the car (66 plate Kuga, 50,000 miles) has maybe another 5 years of reliable service? At that point I’ll be in a good place (if I live that long) to decide what to do. In a way, that’s the point. Folks have plenty of time to decide when, and if to jump. As I said elsewhere, I’m currently just outside central London, Abbey Wood. I have to say I was hugely impressed by the transport links, particularly the tube. Quick, efficient and I thought cheap. Maybe some folks will decide to ditch the car altogether? Would that be so bad? Just a thought…

 

Because we're being ripped off.

That is becoming less of an issue the more renewable is scaled. It is very rare indeed that there is no wind offshore. And as more wind farms pop up, the greater the likelihood that there'll be power generated somewhere. Part of the issue is that the grid is out of date and needs lots of work. There's already a queue of renewable projects waiting to be connected.

That won't be an issue. On grazing land the panels provide shelter, and they are spaced such that the ground underneath always gets some sun. There are examples in Europe where the panels share land with crops, and the crops do just as well. As the spacing of the panels allows direct sunlight to reach the ground for at least part of the day, the crops get enough, and the intermittent shade reduces water demand.

I agree about ruining the landscape. I don't want that either. There's a solar farm just a few miles from me on farmland. It is literally right next to the dual carriageway. Yet even after someone told me it was there, it still took me several passes to catch a glimpse of it. Ie it's nearly impossible to see it from anywhere public.

 

So, just changing one's mind, surely now everyone on here should be well and truly have been sold on peat free compost then.

Let's just forget about how old we all are and let's look at it this way. If your in full time employment and paid the minimum wage what would your budget be for a car? Would a 15k ICE car be within your budget let alone a 30k BEV. Apart from in my late teens early twenties I have always contract leased, apart from the current Corsa all these cars would probably not have been above 15k new, cash price.

Which car has been the best selling car or car's over the last 2 decades, the Fiesta will be one and it's likely always been well under 20k, hence why it has been so popular. Elon Musk said in 2020 they were working on a budget car that after federal incentives would be priced at $25,000. No sign of that coming to fruition anytime soon, with some in the trade saying is very unlikely to happen.

My point of opinion is based on those with low incomes in deprived area's where public transport is little to none existent. Strange how from my house I can see the nuclear site, the off shore windfarms off Walney and the Solway firth, then there is the onshore farms, with a few solar panel farms too. Yet less than 25 miles east in the lakes, the shops, pubs, cafes etc etc are packed, yet we nearly have more empty shops than occupied, so much for green jobs boost the local economy.

 

Not far from me there is a lot of work relating to the construction and installation of wind farms. Yet on the local Facebook pages there are plenty of bitter comments about most of those jobs going to contractors from the netherlands. The depressing truth is that most people want things handed to them on a plate. Why are jobs round here being filled by contractors from mainland Europe? Probably because more people from there put the effort in to train and study for those jobs. It's about 40 years since we had a ship building industry here, but you still here people whinging about the closure of the ship yards. The steel industry has also long gone. The writing was on the wall more than thirty years ago but people still want a job in the nonexistent steelworks. The latest trend seems to be people panicking about AI taking their jobs. I've noticed two distinct traits of the people that are worried. Firstly, they know nothing about it. As in they haven't even taken ten minutes out of their day to read the basics, and secondly, they have made no effort to work out what future work might look like and how they can take basic steps to future proof themselves.

 

They are here in Scotland. We will happily sell you our wind-generated electricity and our Scottish water.