Biggest Solar Farm In Wales Planned
By Paul Homewood
Meanwhile Wales Online inform us that a new solar farm will power 100,000 homes:
Maybe somebody ought to explain to those 100,000 homeowners that they will only have electricity for a few hours a day in summer, not even that in winter.
If it goes ahead, the project will receive over £150 million in subsidies, based on current prices. That’s £1500 for each of those lucky homeowners.
No wonder NextEnergy are keen to get to get involved.
By Paul Homewood
I wonder whose bright idea that was?
https://twitter.com/OzaNandini/status/1777941616562733520
The concept of floating solar power is taking on water after a storm knocked a new Indian project offline only a few days after it began operations.
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
The sale of new petrol-fuelled motorcycles is set to be banned from 2040, under plans due to be announced by ministers as part of the Government’s net zero crackdown.
The move would affect all vehicles classed as “L3” and upwards, including scooters and light, medium and higher-powered motorcycles. There are around 1.3 million motorcycles registered in the UK.
It is expected to be revealed soon, according to industry sources, although it is not clear whether Downing Street has signed off on the policy yet.
The change would also be accompanied by a plan to ban sales of new petrol-fuelled mopeds earlier, from 2030.
That reflects the already-high numbers of electric mopeds being sold. They accounted for roughly half of UK moped registrations last year.
By contrast, the market for electric motorcycles is far less developed and represented less than 2pc of total sales in 2023.
They also suffer from some of the same “range anxiety” issues as electric cars, with many e-motorcycles currently limited to ranges of less than 100 miles while not all are compatible by default with electric car charging stations.
Taxpayer-backed net zero group donates to Labour
By Paul Homewood
h/t Paul Kolk
A government-backed organisation that raises cash for net zero projects has donated £100,000 of support to Labour.
By Paul Homewood
h/t Philip Bratby
The Net Zero disaster lurches from one crisis to another:
The Energy Secretary has scrapped plans for a pilot “hydrogen town” after a wave of protests against earlier trials.
Claire Coutinho has shelved proposals to force thousands of homes and businesses to replace their natural gas supplies with hydrogen by 2030 to test the fuel’s viability.
Aberdeen, Scunthorpe, and two Welsh towns were among those being considered for wholesale conversion to hydrogen for heating.
It was meant to be a trial run to test the use of low-carbon hydrogen as a replacement for natural gas, which was being considered as part of the UK’s drive to reach net zero by 2050.
However, ministers have been forced into a rethink following a wave of protests in two smaller communities – Redcar in Yorkshire and Whitby, near Ellesmere Port – that had been earmarked as testbed “hydrogen villages”. Both proposed trials were ultimately abandoned.
By Paul Homewood
h/t Philip Bratby
Utter insanity in the name of saving the planet!
Giant heat pumps powering a district heating network could turn the retirement resort of Worthing, West Sussex into one of the UK’s greenest towns under government plans.
The £500m plan will see heat extracted from the atmosphere and then pumped first to public buildings and eventually to households in the area.
Worthing is one of the UK’s most gas-reliant towns with boilers installed in 77pc of its homes, and has an ageing housing stock that generally has below-average levels of insulation, according to constituency data.
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
I wonder if the foxes are vegan?
Eco-friendly brake cables are being eaten by foxes, after manufacturers switched from petroleum-based insulation to soy, forcing owners to wrap their cars in tarpaulins.
Recent photos show multiple cars covered in blue plastic for protection after a spate of attacks in Worthing, West Sussex, with locals claiming at least 20 vehicles were targeted by foxes.
Jack Cousens, the AA’s head of roads policy, said the animals may be attracted to the soy-based insulation on brake wires.
Since 2000, peanut and soy-based oils and waxes have been used on car parts including gearbox insulation, primer bulbs and diesel injector wires, instead of petroleum-based coverings.
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
I think these two must be in the early stages of dementia:
Two Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested after damaging the case around the Magna Carta at the British Library.
Reverend Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, 85, a retired biology teacher, targeted the glass enclosure around the historic document on Friday.
The pair then held up a sign reading "The Government is breaking the law" before gluing themselves to the display, footage posted online shows.
The British Library said security had "intervened to prevent further damage".
The Metropolitan Police said two people had been taken into custody having been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage.
The British Library said the damage to the case, which was caused at about 10:40 BST, was "minimal" and police said the document itself was not harmed.
Rev Parfitt, who held a chisel while Ms Bruce used a hammer, said: "The Magna Carta is rightly revered, being of great importance to our history, to our freedoms and to our laws.
"But there will be no freedom, no lawfulness, no rights, if we allow climate breakdown to become the catastrophe that is now threatened."
By Paul Homewood
It’s worth taking a closer look at daily rainfall in Oxford, as it has such a long database, back to 1827. It tells us a lot about the weather in recent years, things that the Met Office want to hide from us.
Although we keep being told by the Met Office that our weather has been so wet in recent years because a “a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture”, the principal factor is, and always has been, the number of days when it rains. In other words a meteorological phenomenon, not a climatic one.
The general definition of a rainday is when rainfall exceeds 1mm. The chart below plots these at Oxford. Data is from KNMI:
Rupert Darwall & Smart Meters
By Paul Homewood
JHB interviews Rupert Darwall about smart meters:
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 