Nick Holliman

Are you a triangle or a square? It depends on your point of view.

#SixOnSaturday Burrowing wasps among the sounds and views on the summit trail to Mount Kiangarow, the highest peak in the Bunya Mountains. An easy hike near @thebunyas mountain tavern and their tasty dinning.

Can Australia do better with and for research? buff.ly/5R4CFTh Almost certainly yes, it funds research at a lower rate than the OECD average, it ties up researchers' time in overly complex funding bids, it doesn't fully fund research costs demanding cross-subsidy.

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 lols -you have no idea what I do. Renewables are the cheapest form of generated power, the most sovereign and one of the few ways to secure the UKs energy. Your information on them is years out of date. You are arguing unpatriotically, against British national interests.

@binocularity @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 I find it interesting that someone involved in electronic imaging should think he's a greater expert in piwer generation. I assume your belief in cheapest is based on LCOE and does not take in the full costs NESO is now the mouthpiece for Miliband and not an independent source.

The fossil fuel industry is desperate to keep the UK hooked on expensive and volatile fuels. When events like the Iran conflict expose how vulnerable the world is to fossil fuel price shocks, the misinformation machine goes into overdrive. Fossil fuels are price volatile, a national security risk for both affordability and climate stability, and their combustion causes about 8.7 million premature deaths every year from air pollution. That figure is likely conservative, as research continues to link air pollution to an expanding range of diseases. The logical response is to transition away from them as quickly as possible, especially when the latest science shows fossil fuel driven warming has almost doubled since 2015 and new research suggests sea levels are already higher than previously estimated, putting tens of millions more people at risk of coastal flooding. The good news is that we already have most of the technologies needed to do this today such as renewables, batteries, heat pumps and electric vehicles. This is also why these technologies have increasingly been dragged into a culture war. Slowing their adoption protects the fossil fuel status quo. Sources carbonbrief.org/pace-of-global… theguardian.com/environment/20… ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/feb/… #NetZero #ClimateChange #AirPollution #CleanEnergy #EnergySecurity #Health #EV #HeatPump #Wind #Solar

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 I am not ignoring it, I post about it every week.

@binocularity @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 I also note tht you continue to ignore the regular periods when wind and solar generation fall to very low levels. Go to gridwatch.templar.co.uk and download the data for 16-21 December 2021 and tell me the cost of backup required to keep uk running when wind and solar dominate

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 You have no idea what I think, clearly. Nor have you looked at anything I have posted on power. The UK has never (for over 50 years) run on a single source of power. It is unlikely too in the future. There are many solutions already working around the worked to Dunkelflaute.

@mwt2008 @binocularity @KathrynPorter26 Ah, that old one, meaning if we build enough wind turbines throughout UK land and sea territory there will be sufficient wind to power us. How many turbines, where for periods of low wind and what is cost of turn off on a windy week?

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 You are ill-informed that renewables are not a key part of the future of UK fuel strategy, also that it forms the cheapest source of generation. You are also ill-informed about UK NESO, they have planned for lows in Solar and Wind, no lights went off. Unlike petrol last week.

@binocularity @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 It's most insulting of you to say that I'm ill-informed. In what way do you regard my post as ill-informed? I merely asked a question with particular parameters and can point you to a 7-day period when wind gave ~5% and solar<1% of capacity. Are you pretending it doesn't happen?

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 Insulting as usual, ill-informed as usual. You can choose not to support renewables, but you are voting for ever-higher energy prices for the UK. And in about ten years a complete lack of UK energy security when the North Sea runs out. Other countries are already ahead.

@mwt2008 @binocularity @KathrynPorter26 Show me the periods when coal, gas or nuclear output fell to 1-5% of capacity over a period of 7 days in midwinter ? You're spouting nonsense, as always.

You may have missed it... but 10 years ago we introduced AudioPlot—part of the beginning of the big audio processing system #WithWolfram. reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/A…

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 Nope, they are my tests to see if you are a bot. You put no facts in your posts about energy, and you give nothing but (ill-advised) opinion on renewables.

@binocularity @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 My apologies if I upset you but it is very insulting of you to say I'm a Grok bot (how does that work?) or that I use Grok to reply to you (don't know how I'd start to do that). But those are your diversions rather than answering questions, aren't they?

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 Ok -- but why have prices gone up? not because of renewables, because the price of Gas&Oil has gone up due first to the Ukraine situation and now the Iran situation. Both will give a lot more pain ahead. Renewables are clearly cheaper and the more the UK invests the better.

@binocularity @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 I'd love to have cheap energy but the greater the proportion we get from renewables, the higher prices go. If you look at my posts you'll find thousands of them showing results of my gardening. Free sun and wind are great, it's the turning them into usable energy that costs.

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 I doubt you are "Northern" as you are not interested in cheap energy, I doubt you are even a "Gardener" as you can't see the free, permanent energy available from the Sun and Wind.

@binocularity @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 You're obsessed with Grok. Grok was great at putting people in bikinis but often wrong on lots of things. I haven't insulted you but asked you a couple of questions which you seem loathe to answer. So again, why does gov'nt have to offer CfD far in excess of prices you quote?

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 You know why, and you also know UK Gas reserves are running out, so arguing to rely on a globally instable, rapidly running out fuel supply makes no sense. The longer you argue against renewables the more expensive UK electricity will be.

@binocularity @mwt2008 If it's so cheap, and gas sets the price, why does the government have to offer CfD prices far in excess of the prices you claim?

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 You are clearly either a Grok addict or a Grok bot. Your posts contain no facts, just opinions and insults.

@binocularity @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 Why do you have an obsession with Grok. Is that where you got those figures?

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 @KathrynPorter26 No I don't, everything I say is based in real world data. But instead of believing Grok go and find the numbers yourself. For example: "Generation Costs: Onshore wind (£38/MWh) and offshore wind (£44/MWh) are cheaper than Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGT) (£114/MWh). "

@mwt2008 @binocularity So you admit that the solar figures you produced earlier were irrelevant to UK so instead you produce wind figures, without stating source, and not based on real world prices! What's your take on them @KathrynPorter26 ?

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 I present figures every week, and I know 30% of UK electricity last year came from Wind alone. Without it your home electricity would cost a lot more right now. My prediction: UK reliance on petrochemicals will push up all home costs in the next year, because of the war

@binocularity @mwt2008 You haven't presented any figures. Can fake accounts use Grok to reply? Someone who knows about that would be the type of person to do that, wouldn't you?

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 All my figures apply to the UK. And you have produced none that apply to anywhere. I am starting to think you are simply a fake account just using Grok to reply. There is no evidence behind your statements.

@mwt2008 @binocularity Why do you trumpet figures thst don't apply to UK?

@aNorthernGarden @mwt2008 It does indeed produce cheaper energy, it is well recognised the world over. If you have a costing that shows otherwise, please do share it. It is _way_ more secure than overseas oil and gas, and produces jobs in the UK. Renewables make business sense.

@binocularity @mwt2008 It doesn't produce cheaper energy. That's a fallacy as is the idea that it creates more jobs. You're a fool if you believe that while businesses are going bust because of high power prices. I understand sun and wind well and know that wind and solar power will not change climate.

Electricity generation by fuel, UK, week 13th Mar 2026 YTD high for Wind + Solar this week. Can we rely on Gas? Not in North Sea: UK + Norway reserves running down. Overseas supply is highly insecure. @WolframResearch notebook here: buff.ly/jNIqd5b Data @neso_energy

#SixOnSaturday: bucolic trail in the Bunya Mountains Including the two most dangerous living things I have met in Aus Bunya Pine Cone: 10kg falling from 40m Stinging Tree: giant nettle tree and way, way more painful Start at the hospitable Bunya Mountains Tavern #Queensland