Renewable energy sources - the good, the bad and the ugly

Many collectors/enthusiasts are already turning to synthetic/bio-fuels or are converting their classics to EV (although the latter is a costly business.

The ban on ICE, however, is short-sighted - - with that reduction of production of fossil fuels will come a rise in price as you rightly point out, yet that same rise in price will also translate through to the cost of food and other goods, a significant amount of which will have no choice but to continue to be transported via fossil fuelled vehicles. It is possible to have heavy chassis BEVs, but their range is hugely limited. I have direct experience of this and they are not the panacea you might think they are.

Indeed, it is a bit of a media storm in a teacup - however, it is also not a million miles from policy that has been mooted before - first I heard this sort of thing was when Boris was in government.

We have, and there has been a commensurate increase in the safety standards that have to be met as well as considerably stronger planning laws/NIMBY-ism than there was in the 60's - - back then, it was a case of compulsory purchase and telling folks what was being done, now it is years of consultation and crying about loss of views or how to rehome a great crested newt...

That is very, very subjective and may well even relate to where you live. In London, even for those who have houses (rather than flats) it is quite likely that they won't be able to charge at home; for those who are able to charge at home, the maximum rate is 7kW, or 2.3kW if they don't have a dedicated charger. I have a colleague who is having an EV foisted upon him by Motability and because his family are huge, he needs a 9 seater - the car he is getting is van based and therefore will have a realistic range of circa 140 miles, which he is going to use most of each day. If he manages to get a driveway installed (still up for debate with the council), then he will charge at home, but even then it is going to be touch and go whether he will be able to charge the vehicle full with the time available.

There is clear evidence that the climate is changing - but, it always has and always will. The problem with the current evidence being used is that the timescales being referred to are relatively short and the data itself is being hugely weaponised for scaremongering.. but not with a view to actually making anything better, but rather to extricate money from the likes of you and I.

If (and it is a big, big if). .. if there was such a 'crisis' then the great and the good would NOT be trotting about in private jets; our national broadcaster would not be flying people to other countries purely to say "it's hot here", we would be planting lots and lots of trees (instead of culling them in their millions), we would be working on water storage, distribution and irrigation, we would be looking at preventing flooding to reduce unnecessary building works and we would be building decent homes with gardens etc instead of lobbing up stacks of boxes in the sky.

 

It is - but we are either serious about tackling this sort of stuff or we are not.

 

My mum had a boiler put in along with fire alarms under one of these schemes, but in fairness that was linked to her energy supplier also, and they did a good job; her bills momentarily came down until the world went mad...

 

Yet for someone who was employed, if the government provided interest free finance over an extended period (lets say 100 months at £160 for the sake of an argument) to have it done and that same person then saved £80 a month on their energy bills, they would end up only being £80 a month worse off net for 100 months and they would be warm. That to me seems like a decent deal, and would make it accessible to an awful lot more folks.

 

This company are doing sustainable fuels @Clueless 1 v2 - Get in touch | Coryton

Again, not the only solution in the toolkit, but part of it. I am not anti-EV by any stretch of the imagination, but I have considerable first hand experience of them in use for commercial purposes and it most definitely is not all plain sailing and is very often not 'as described' - - are they terrible? No. But are they suitable for every application? No.

We need to stop vilifying anyone who is not a climate evangelist as being a denier and listen to all components of the debate from everyone, including those at the bottom who can ill afford the taxation/additional costs/new equipment.

 

You try telling that to a lot of my friends and relatives who live in high rise buildings or ones that have no off road parking! Even in our village there are a lot of old properties that have little or no front gardens or do have front gardens but no driveways or parking spaces in them. Those are banned from having them put in (planning regs) as 'paving plant growing areas is bad for the environment' and the ancient drainage system wouldn't be able to cope with the runoff - not to mention the cost of doing so and the cost to the local authority of lowering kerbs (which they would pass on to the residents).

Using generalised terms such as 'for most people' I think gives a wrong impression, especially when you are one of those that doesn't fit into that category. It's a similar argument when Sadiq says that 'only 10% of vehicles in outer London are non-compliant with ULEZ' seems to gloss over the estimated figure that would entail. I would be inclined to disbelieve both that figure and the opposite figure that has been published by the RAC that up to 700,000 vehicles in London are non-compliant. The Mayor of London's own department have stated that 'only' 200,000 vehicles in London are non-compliant (2.3 million vehicles drive in London every day - their figures).

Even if that figure was only in the tens of thousands in outer London it will impact horrendously on a lot of households. The scrappage scheme that Sadiq has put forward is only a tiny amount of the money that householders would have to fork out to buy EV vehicles (and put in the charging infrastructure) as those are now so expensive.

 

I think I shall need to put my stock of dilithium crystals under heavy lock and key. I need them to power my deflector shield.

Shhh! Don't tell anyone about it.

 

Not really possible when you have dozens of high rise dwellings with only one or two lampposts nearby.