Ben Cockburn 🇺🇦💙💛

@mine04878295 @colinwalker79 Individual windfarms are intermittent, but across an EEZ the size of the UK's, there's always wind blowing somewhere. Plus there's solar, nuclear, batteries and pumped storage. Existing gas will be available on standby, but our need for it will reduce with time.

@colinwalker79 Lookout blackouts on the way no reliable backup mean just this,wind & solar are intermittent by definition.They produce energy when weather allow,not when the grid demands it. An advanced economy cannot run on hope and favourable weather patterns.without a dependable 24/7 backup

"UK’s Renewables Output Hits Record, Helping to Blunt Iran Shock" Solar & wind fleet was producing about 34 gigawatts around midday. Gas dropped to just over a gigawatt - making up only 2.4% of the power mix bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

@dxbexpat_nick @colinwalker79 Course you can. A bit of solar, a few batteries, some more pumped storage mixed with a bit of gas and flexible nuclear and we'll be grand.

@colinwalker79 You can't sensibly build a national grid around unreliable and expensive wind!!

@LewisStanding1 @Xants_CityDG @colinwalker79 Well put.

@Xants_CityDG @colinwalker79 Look up how renewables CFDs work They get paid an agreed price no matter what. Eg AR3 about to come online is 5p/KWh wholesale So if gas is currently demanding 14p/KWh , wind saves us 9p. Excellent 👍

@renewablesmiffy @garyalman There's also grid stabilisation facilities at Lister Drive (Liverpool), Killingholme (Lincs), Grain (Kent), Cruachan (Scotland), Rassau (Wales) & Rothienorman (Scotland). These work off synchronous condensers, flywheels and/or hydro turbines to provide inertia & voltage control.

@garyalman The nukes, biomass, hydro and imports are enough.

I was told over the last twenty years the GB grid couldn’t cope with Renewables above 10%, then 20%, then 30%, 40% and 50%. Shouldn’t it have collapsed by now?

@renewablesmiffy @freerobnz We were paying £5.24 for someone to take the power being generated.

@freerobnz Not today it wasn’t

@gibraltarfx @ken_hobbs Oh look. From the same website you were peeking at.

@gibraltarfx @ken_hobbs That is the spot price. The price paid for energy after the national grid has taken what it needs. Earlier today it was -£5.24.

Just 2% gas!

@NicholasLe81575 @ken_hobbs That's simply not reflected in the figures. In 2024 it hit 4,239bcm. Increasing consumption of a commodity that is declining in known reserves means we aren't far from another global crunch; Iran is simply a portent of things to come.

@ken_hobbs Gas is being displaced at increasing rate globally so what we have got left will last longer and be part of the bridge whilst long term storage is sorted which is the Achilles heal fully renewable electricity

@MikeWel61647760 @ken_hobbs It NEVER stops blowing across our EEZ, which has some of the richest wind resources in the world. In Europe, only Norway has anything comparable. With our energy needs, that makes us the prime wind generator in Europe, and means that other countries want our green power.

@ken_hobbs Talking about having your head in the sand…. RE has guaranteed prices well above market strike prices in most cases but it’s hidden through CfDs. Plus intermittents need a 100% back-up system plus grid stability systems, So you’re paying for 2 parallel systems

@MikeWel61647760 @ken_hobbs I do love how the anti-green zealots completely ignore the 'affordability' aspect of importing more and more gas and that excess generation currently leads to negative spot prices. Plus that CfDs will expire...

@ken_hobbs You mean reality? I love how the green zealots completely ignore the ‘affordability’ aspect of the energy trilemma and that wholesale market price is not the price actually paid to RE generators

@DeanH2963 @ken_hobbs @SteHowarth3 As backup, sure. But across the country, the wind never stops blowing. And as capacity increases, we export our excess to a Europe that wants green energy. Plus we have new pumped storage coming to even things out.

@ken_hobbs @SteHowarth3 No gas, no grid

@kaya85kaya @robhawkes It will do. Power growth is going up from here, reversing a medium-term decline. Increasing GDP means increasing power generation. All driven by new AI data centers, EVs & heat pumps

@robhawkes We need demand to increase rapidly or a LOT more wind is going to need to be curtailed 10 GW of offshore wind under construction atm if they were online today we would have had 240 GWh additional curtialment today at a cost ~£22M for one day !!

Did we just break the wind generation record today, twice? On the train right now so will validate later…

@kaya85kaya @amdsimpson @robhawkes You would be surprised about the energy demand growth for AI. Already the hyperscalers are building multi-megawatt data centres and they cannot build them fast enough. It's the reason we're also looking to add 24GW of new nuclear by 2050. Total demand is less than 40GW today.

@amdsimpson @robhawkes We aren't going to get much additional demand in the next 4 years maybe +3GW or so And yes I am aware curtailment will be on windy days but adding 30 GW of capacity will mean a vast amount of curtailment Which will push costs up considerably We need solutions and fast

@NahMateUK @robhawkes And why don't you subtract the savings from not burning gas instead now? They will have selected the cheapest windfarms to curtail and the ones running are generating more cheaply than gas. The spot price turned negative at points today.

@robhawkes And what, £5-10mm curtailment costs today? Why don’t you add that metric?

@GanchevTony @andrew10612 @peterrhague Type C isn't Schuko, but Schuko sockets allow Type C plugs to be used. Across Europe, Type C & Type F plugs are used interchangeably. Whereas UK plug sockets are largely standardised on Type G so there are decades now of everything using the same safe standard plug.

@bepeco @andrew10612 @peterrhague You are comparting computers to compots. Type C is not Schuko and has no grounding. Also I would consider Egyptian electricians a risk by themselves i.e. probably not only the socket but the whole circuitry could have been done poorly. /1

The emperor of electrical sockets laughs at your inferiority

@GanchevTony @andrew10612 @peterrhague Oh good. Meanwhile, anecdotally I've replaced fuses in multiple plugs rather than having to replace the appliance itself. I've also never been electrically shocked by a UK appliance, while my left hand bears the blister scars of being shocked by a Type C table lamp in Egypt.

@bepeco @andrew10612 @peterrhague Actually, just this year i witnessed a damaged appliance despite the socket fuse (also, a charred socket). This aside, appliances have their own fuses that are tuned to what safe and unsafe current might be for the particular appliance. It's a two-tier system that needs no third.

Promised myself I'd keep my head down, but I can't. If some of you can't see that 2 champions league campaigns and an actual trophy, the best day of our lives, doesn't buy you the time to put it right? Then I'm at a loss. I really am. 🖤🤍

@J_Stobrimore @kev51931559785 @RestingHam @Scottd6168 @CRainsZombie @OrwellNGoode The temperature of the water makes a big difference to the flavours that you extract from the tea leaves. It changes the flavours as well as helping to extract them from the leaves.

@kev51931559785 @RestingHam @Scottd6168 @CRainsZombie @OrwellNGoode Sure thing, Sport. Cool story. I don't drink coffee. It's burnt berry pit water. And tea is literally dried leaves soaked in water. That's just the reality of both beverages. They're very specific dried leaves, but dried leaves all the same.

@AGiannas @Clarsonimus These are all good. But there is a gap between 1-2 hour output that these projects are aimed at & the inter-day timeshifting of power that we need for renewables. Otherwise you're saying that some projects get to trade multiple times per day (£££) and others have to hold back (£)

Nothing responds faster than batteries - has been proven since 2017 in Australia. Also in the UK.. You can see my point… As of early 2026, the UK battery energy storage (BESS) market is experiencing a massive boom, with nearly 2,000 projects in the development pipeline. This pipeline includes projects that are in planning, consented, or under construction, with a total capacity exceeding 95GW.

#ClimateCrisis Fun Facts: Considering their substantial downtime, frequent replacement, and extremely low power density (3.1 MW), approximately 4000 wind turbines would be needed to replace one (1) nuclear reactor (1200 MW).

@AGiannas @Clarsonimus Tesla uses relatively high-cost, high-performance battery chemistries that lend themselves to high output designs. 1-2 hours duration of full output. Iron-Air batteries can provide days worth of full output, but at low power. FORM's plant in Ireland will be 10MW/1000MWh (100h!)

@bepeco @Clarsonimus They have. TESLA is leading the way and they have sold out for the next 2-3 years. Chinese are catching up !