They've discovered an amazing fuel source

Only part of that post is true. The man made global warming bit.

Clean coal technology can make it as green as can be.

 

Flash
Yes they did but only in an effort to close the mines
Dash for gas under guess who ? Tory party
Today due to high gas prices the majprity are closed or moth balled , great eh ?
Uk electricity production is 50% coal generated .....the irony
Gas around 20% from the plants with a decent spark price
Rest nuclear and renewable
So the current sorry pictutre under the tories is that we have no energy policy other than burning cheap dirty imported coal until the coal plants close and the lights go out , very modern eh ?
Not sure how you claim gas is clean either
Nox sox co2.

 

Burning gas releases carbon in to the atmosphere just the same as burning coal. It's the reduction of CO2 emissions that is getting everyone hot and bothered and burning gas does nothing for that. It's not a green energy source, it's a fossil fuel just like coal. Cleaner burning coal fired power stations were designed and to be built in the UK until it was decided coal was public enemy number one. I believe we sold the technology to the Norwegians. Many years later, in 2012, over 42% of our electricity was generated using coal power. Meanwhile, of the gas we do burn, just under 50% is imported.

You may believe the erosion of workers rights over the years, since the destruction of the unions, to the point where no one has any and employees in all industries are **** on from a great height is a good thing. Personally, I don't.

 

Well said that man.

 

This is a myth - we 'make' more now than we did 20 or 30 years ago.

A single car plant in Sunderland makes more cars per month than we did 30 years ago in the whole country.

Sure, it's a Japanese company, but so what, it just proves that issues with production are about management and worker relations. Get those right and this country competes and excels.

We produce electronics, pharmaceuticals, textiles. We cannot compete with stuff that is being thrown off the mill/factory at tuppence a ton, but we can compete at high tech/niche/high end.

So, whereas those manufacturing jobs might have been for hammer wielding blue collar workers before, now they might be for PhD wielding biochemical engineers or software engineers or micro-electronics technicians.

 

It could have been so much different

Had this project been properly funded

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1988/nov/02/fluidised-bed-experiment-grimethorpe

 

Re: It could have been so much different

http://writemark.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/can-coal-be-made-clean.html

 

That's why she shut them. Nothing to do with coal/inefficiencies etc. It was because she didn't want organised labour. And she got it.

 

Re: It could have been so much different

Best link in the history of this BBS. Fascinating that. Hark at the Barnsley MPs talking about climate change back in 1989. At least we eventually threw one of them in gaol. Serves him right.

 

Re: It could have been so much different

Nice dig at Thatch's concern for the climate - by building nuclear power stations.

 

Re: It could have been so much different

I worked on that power station. Although the technology would have cut CO2 emissions by it being more efficient than conventional coal fired power stations, its primary objective was the removal of noxious gasses released during the combustion process - nox and sox as Mr X would say.

 

Natural gas is a far cleaner burning and more efficient fuel than coal.

All other things being equal (which of course they aren't) you would always choose gas over coal.

 

Re: It could have been so much different

The technology was sold (given away) to one of the Scandinavian countries wasn't it ?

 

Re: It could have been so much different

Tha knows **** all abart **** all.

 

Re: It could have been so much different

Yes. And ?

 

Re: It could have been so much different

Just stating it as fact of all facts. Stick to selling expensive Gebs to middle class Derbyshire bumpkins.

 

Re: It could have been so much different

Sorry DJ Jizzy Jeff

 

While that's true, the fact remained that the UK had coal reserves estimated to last us a couple of hundred years while our gas output can't even keep up with the demand now, and gas power stations are currently producing less electricity than coal. We're importing almost 50% of that gas. We could have remained self sufficient, now we rely on other countries. We could have employed our own workforce, but we forced them on to the dole.

The technology that Extremely Northern linked to would have, if developed further, allowed us to build coal power stations that were very clean burning. That wouldn't have reduced the CO2 emissions, but gas, although clean burning produces plenty of CO2 itself. When we burn stuff, when we set it on fire, we just oxidise it, much of the stuff being carbon, which is released in to the atmosphere as CO2.

Green technologies will replace the burning of fossil fuels, both coal and gas, but we should have never abandoned mining our own coal so soon. We needed to burn it cleaner, without doubt, but we were making steps towards that before they were abandoned. Coal needed gradually replacing over decades, what we did as a country was lunacy. Who turns off their own supply of energy and starts importing it from elsewhere?

 

Re: It could have been so much different

In da House. Innit

 

Coal-fired power stations are being closed down anyway to meet EU emissions targets, even if the mines had been kept open there would be nowhere to sell the coal.