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has anyone done similar analysis for UK/EU?

by ptah 7y ago

perfunctory 7y ago
Had to smile as apparently now one has to mention UK separately.
tialaramex 7y ago
In the UK, when I was a kid some (for the time) hard economic right politicians had power and the coal mines were Union bastions since almost the beginning of unions, so the politicians destroyed the coal industry. Some people are understandably still very angry about this today - after all it destroyed their communities. But an unintended consequence is that it was far easier to disentangle the country from coal power. If you're importing it anyway having closed your own mines, there are fewer angry hard working people to protest when you stop. So the UK now often (as in most of the day, and sometimes for days at a time) has no coal electricity generation. The other thing they did was take a very big coal power plant and convert it to burn trees. Notionally it burns "waste" wood but in practice the volumes involved mean people are growing trees to sell as "waste" for that plant. This is not great for the environment, but hey at least it isn't coal.
- hef19898 7y ago
  Depending on how the trees are grown it might even be okish fir the environment. At least the fuel itself is CO2 neutral. Loosing the land on the other hand is a different story.
  - pjc50 7y ago
    It's mostly imported. Last time I ran the numbers I calculated that Drax would burn every tree in the UK within a year if limited to local wood. Supposedly it's sawmill waste: https://www.drax.com/sustainability/environment/#sourcing-sustainable-biomass https://www.drax.com/sustainability/environment/#sourcing-su... that would otherwise be burned as waste: https://www.drax.com/sustainability/one-company-helped-transform-biomass-business/ https://www.drax.com/sustainability/one-company-helped-trans... Not everyone agrees: https://www.redpepper.org.uk/activists-are-taking-on-the-uks-largest-carbon-culprit/ https://www.redpepper.org.uk/activists-are-taking-on-the-uks...

has anyone done similar analysis for UK/EU?

by ptah 7y ago

has anyone done similar analysis for UK/EU?

perfunctory 7y ago

Had to smile as apparently now one has to mention UK separately.

tialaramex 7y ago

In the UK, when I was a kid some (for the time) hard economic right politicians had power and the coal mines were Union bastions since almost the beginning of unions, so the politicians destroyed the coal industry. Some people are understandably still very angry about this today - after all it destroyed their communities. But an unintended consequence is that it was far easier to disentangle the country from coal power. If you're importing it anyway having closed your own mines, there are fewer angry hard working people to protest when you stop. So the UK now often (as in most of the day, and sometimes for days at a time) has no coal electricity generation. The other thing they did was take a very big coal power plant and convert it to burn trees. Notionally it burns "waste" wood but in practice the volumes involved mean people are growing trees to sell as "waste" for that plant. This is not great for the environment, but hey at least it isn't coal.

hef19898 7y ago
Depending on how the trees are grown it might even be okish fir the environment. At least the fuel itself is CO2 neutral. Loosing the land on the other hand is a different story.
- pjc50 7y ago
  It's mostly imported. Last time I ran the numbers I calculated that Drax would burn every tree in the UK within a year if limited to local wood. Supposedly it's sawmill waste: https://www.drax.com/sustainability/environment/#sourcing-sustainable-biomass https://www.drax.com/sustainability/environment/#sourcing-su... that would otherwise be burned as waste: https://www.drax.com/sustainability/one-company-helped-transform-biomass-business/ https://www.drax.com/sustainability/one-company-helped-trans... Not everyone agrees: https://www.redpepper.org.uk/activists-are-taking-on-the-uks-largest-carbon-culprit/ https://www.redpepper.org.uk/activists-are-taking-on-the-uks...