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  • Eggs now in different baskets.the_wub@mastodon.social
    Oct 23, 2026, 5:55 AM

    @ChrisMayLA6 To me it seems that in questions of energy security the crux of the matter is do you want to secure your country by paying ever increasing amounts of money per kWh for fossil fuels (thus allowing you to use energy when you want it) or do you rely on a less consistent energy supply based on renewables (likely to be cheaper in the long term) combined with electricity storage systems (either batteries or say water pump storage systems).

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig

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  • RegReggieHere@mastodon.social
    Oct 23, 2026, 7:50 AM

    @ChrisMayLA6

    The biggest problem with renewables not that the supply is intermittent; it's that the supply is impossible to monopolise.

    We can't seriously expect a class of leaders brought up on capital monopolies and rent-extraction to ever accept the socialised economics of renewable energy.

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  • RegReggieHere@mastodon.social
    Oct 23, 2026, 8:11 AM

    @ChrisMayLA6

    Well, maybe I'm being overly cynical here, but perhaps we also need to consider that monopoly issue in light of the the proliferation of grid-connected data centres with their own extensive power banks, sited close to population centres?

    If renewable energy currently lacks an organised network of battery storage, then data centres would be well-placed to insert themselves into the gap between the grid and household consumers to create local electricity distribution monopolies.

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  • RegReggieHere@mastodon.social
    Oct 23, 2026, 11:00 AM

    @ChrisMayLA6

    That's not exactly the "That won't happen because x, y, z" response I was hoping for.

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  • T Monkeyteamonkey@mastodon.social
    Oct 23, 2026, 8:43 AM

    @ChrisMayLA6 That article’s a bit of a mess; TBH I’d say it’s feeding in to scare-mongering.

    Yes, fuel costs will be high, but we’ve known that all year. However, the government *has* secured gas for winter and there’s no reason to believe we won’t get it.

    Moreover, this winter we’re predicted to use comparatively low amounts of gas, partly because of renewables and storage lowering the need for it to be used to generate electricity, and partly because we’re expecting a mild winter.

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