National Energy System Operator (NESO): Our Clean Power 2030 advice to Government “The connections queue is currently oversubscribed.” (Page 23) “Delivery relies on reforms to the connections queue, planning issues being resolved and market structures providing the right revenue opportunities. These challenges were also raised by many stakeholders.”  the recently nationalised NESO told their boss Ed ..read more

The Global Pumped Hydro Atlas (Bluefield) found this upper reservoir to pair with Loch Ness as the lower reservoir, rated AA, excellent, for storage of 500 GWh, duration of 50 hours and power capacity of 10 GW. There doesn’t seem to be any development at the site for the upper reservoir, unlike the other AA-rated ..read more

Gilkes Energy have made a planning application for the Earba Storage Project claiming it “is a proposed pumped storage hydro (‘PSH’) scheme with an installed capacity of up to 1,800MW and stored energy of up to 40,000 MWh”. ? I regret to inform Gilkes Energy that the Global Pumped Hydro Atlas (Greenfield) begs to differ ..read more

BBC: Scotland’s only oil refinery confirmed to close next year BBC: Bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis warns of 160 jobs at risk Higher import duties – on refined petroleum products & electric buses – could save both the Grangemouth Refinery & Alexander Dennis bus manufacturer. But the powers to slap on import duties are reserved to ..read more

BBC: GB Energy to be headquartered in Aberdeen Thank you, the Labour Party. Aberdeen will not let GB Energy down. STV: Publicly-owned GB Energy to be headquartered in Aberdeen P & J: Reports say ‘GB Energy headquarters to be based in Aberdeen ..read more

STOP SWINNEY BEFORE HE GASSES SCOTS LIKE PIGS! Scotland is now paying £2 million for First Minister Swinney’s batshit crazy plan to pipe poisonous concentrated carbon dioxide gas through eastern Scotland! SWINNEY’S POISON GAS PIPE DREAM When this CO₂ pipeline leaks, Scots will die! DANGER – CO2 – CONCENTRATED POISONOUS CARBON DIOXIDE The bad news “Carbon capture project to receive £2 million from Scottish Government” comes despite my stern scientific advice since 2020, not to dare to proceed with Storegga’s Acorn Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) project in multiple tweets. In this ren ..read more

I strongly oppose all the proposals in this Heat in Building Bill consultation. Firstly, I strongly oppose the misleading context set in the factually and scientifically erroneous “Ministerial Foreword”. Whether those errors are because Mr Harvie has been badly advised by the civil service or because he is a commonly foolish politician, this foreword does not reflect well on the ministerial competence of Mr Harvie, the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliament. “the climate crisis” is patently NOT “the most significant challenge of the 21st century” – that’s a ridiculous claim by Mr Harv ..read more

Phases of Scottish tidal races Generation of baseload power from tidal stream generation at a single tidal race at one site is frustrated at slack water when no power can be generated. However, if you pair up tidal races whose slack water times are approximately 3 hours out of phase then you can add their generations together to provide baseload power. Research today discovered that it looks like suitable tidal races to pair up in Scotland would be the Mull of Kintyre and the Horse Island, Sumburgh Roest, Shetland. No doubt there will be other pairings between UK tidal races to be found ..read more

There is no good reason for a pumped hydro project to be blackmailed by active feral horse shooters or indeed to make any corrupt payments whatsoever so the government of Australia needs to get a grip over Snowy 2.0’s unreasonable costs and delays. Snowy 2.0 is sited in the Kosciuszko National Park which is governed by active feral horse shooters. Feral horses at the Kosciuszko national park are to be culled Not only do they shoot animals they don’t like in the national park but they hamstring projects they don’t like too, such as Snowy 2.0, with red tape. They tied up the contract with so muc ..read more

Torrefied biomass pellets The above picture is of bad-ass biomass pellets after torrefaction, taken from this webpage. “Torrefaction of biomass, e.g., wood or grain, is a mild form of pyrolysis at temperatures typically between 200 and 320 °C. Torrefaction changes biomass properties to provide a better fuel quality for combustion and gasification applications. Torrefaction produces a relatively dry product, which reduces or eliminates its potential for organic decomposition. Torrefaction combined with densification creates an energy-dense fuel carrier of 20 to 21 GJ/ton lower heating value (L ..read more