“It is truly bonkers”: Greg Jackson, Octopus CEO, on the UK’s broken energy system

[oneonorder]

I think there is a greater understanding of the environmental challenges for large tidal schemes (Severn and Mersey). These large scale infrastructure projects also require massive investment. They've been talked about for decades ... will they ever happen? Maybe the open water stuff like off Shetland has potential but it's very small scale at the moment though could be expanded in a modular way (as per offshore wind ... just add more turbines).

and the associated millions of tons of concrete and its associated co2. large tidal might not be green at all.

 

[Lockey]

The energy companies need to make money so have to chase what ever technology/solution the government are paying subsidies for (I work for a power generator), the power generation sector is subject to too much government interference. Hydrogen will only work if we have massive amounts of surplus power in the right place. It's all very well having lots of windfarms up in Scotland but if we have to pay them to turn down/off regularly we have gone down the wrong path with our energy policy. We need a more joined up energy policy that better covers demand side management and ensures a mix of generation types.

 

[Wol747]

I have it on good authority that we are only 50 years away from safe, clean, unlimited fusion power.

And how was God when you called him today?

 

[15Peter20]

No one has mentioned Fusion reactors as a source of power. A friend works at Culham on the demonstration fusion project. I’m pretty sure he is confident of a job for life!

Just as nuclear fission was supposed to give us electricity so cheaply it wouldn’t be worth metering, fusion has been holding out the promise of almost unlimited clean energy for almost as long as I can remember. Seems to have gone pretty quiet recently though.

I did the visitor tour of Culham and, whilst impressed with the science and engineering, came away convinced large scale fusion will never happen. Even if a viable reactor were to be built it would be so far in the future that mega-scale renewables and storage would render it unnecessary.

Add to that the fact that it is nowhere near as clean and safe as advertised.