Talk:Energy in the United Kingdom

Page poorly written, info out of date
There are many grammatical errors in this page, I just fixed a few. The energy efficiency section is so poorly written that it is hard to correct! I guess what it is trying to say is that the energy efficiency targets, if met, would negate the need for 22 power stations, but am not sure so didn't alter it. It really needs clarifying. Lots of info is out of date too and where updates have been made, sections haven't been properly re-written to take account of it. This page needs all the help it can get! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.6.102.83 (talk) 11:19, 29 June 2013 (UTC)
 * 'Contributors' are slinging in random facts without citation or any sense of a timeline.

... And the units used are all over the place - the first paragraph has kg Oil per capita (per year ?), thousand kg Oil (total per year ??) and GW.

"Energy use in the United Kingdom stood at 3,252 kilogrammes of oil equivalent per capita in 2010 compared to a world average of 1 852.[1] In 2012, total electricity consumed was 27,307 thousand kilograms of oil equivalent.[2] Demand for electricity in 2012 was 35.8GW on average,[3] and 57.490GW at its peak.[4]" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.34.187.245 (talk) 14:03, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Differentiation and overlap with Energy policy of the United Kingdom
Due to areas of overlap in these 2 articles I did consider putting a merger tag on them. However, on reflection, there seems to be scope for them to develop in different directions if contributors focus on their titles (government policy -v- the real world). If they don't then they do seem to run the risk of becoming duplicates. 80.42.37.198 01:17, 3 June 2006 (UTC)


 * See discussion at Talk:Energy policy of the United Kingdom Gralo 11:15, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Power output?
What is the total power output of britain?????? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.111.8.98 (talk • contribs) 16:32, 27 November 2006
 * What do you mean by "power"? Do you mean electrical power? And do you mean annual average power, peak power, power generated or consumed? See:
 * World energy resources and consumption
 * List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions
 * List of countries by energy intensity
 * List of countries by electricity consumption
 * List of countries by energy consumption per capita
 * List of countries by electricity production
 * List of countries by renewable electricity production
 * --Teratornis (talk) 18:58, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Electricity Sources I Removed this: Because it is completely wrong, Britain does not have massive thermal energy production, Coal nuclear and gas are the main providers, with Scotland doing well in hydro and wind. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.240.66.20 (talk) 12:42, 14 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Those that you list are thermal. -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 20:39, 26 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Well it is a weird grouping, looking at it from year 2024. Is Nuclear, somehow not thermal? DouglasHeld (talk) 14:49, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

Conservation in the United Kingdom
Maybe this article should be merged with Conservation in the United Kingdom? Clerks 17:23, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Carbon emissions
The table of carbon emissions given does not agree with the Defra figures here. On first glance it looks like the figures we have are for CO2 only. sbandrews 22:07, 18 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Updated with the figures published in Jan2007, including all greenhouse gasses.

Further, is it true, as stated, that under Kyoto, the UK has an individual commitment to cut emissions? I was under the impression that the EU signed up as a single entity, and that Europe as a whole will 'take the rap' if we miss the target. sbandrews 22:14, 18 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Negotiated jointly, but individually signed and ratified, so it seems. Gralo 20:43, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
 * ...and signed by the EU too - see here Gralo 20:50, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Environmental Tax idiocy
Why don't we wake up to the fact that our government and parties are totally fooling the British public with their reasons for environmental taxes, these are stealth taxes designed to make more for the treasury to subsidize other areas of the economy, do not get ploughed back into public transport or anti pollution policies and do little to reduce UK, let alone, world carbon emission targets. Wake up people you are being duped.  This comment was added 10:26, 6 April 2007 by User:203.78.162.75 
 * See External cost and Tragedy of the Commons. The point of taxing pollution is to prevent market failure by making sure polluters see the full costs of generating pollution. --Teratornis (talk) 19:01, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Energy Efficiency Commitment 2 (2005-08) and Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (2008-08)
The article states that little work is being carried out to upgrade existing housing stock. Through EEC2, millions of homes have been insulated, and with the target set to double in this period; insulation activity will carry on rising. This article needs to refer to both EEC2 and CERT to give a true reflection of Energy Efficiency activity in the UK. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bmpeers (talk • contribs) 21:51, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
 * You're right - now fixed.Finereach (talk) 13:08, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Targets??
In the 'Past Performance' section, there are bracketed labels reading '(Domestic target)' and '(Kyoto target)' but these do not seem to be in the tables... Are they meant to be?82.44.252.198 (talk) 18:20, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

New article needed
Given all the publicity about energy I think a new article here on wikipedia is needed that gives details of the energy industry in the UK, listing within it all the suppliers and showing the complex network of supply and distribution, who owns who, which arm of a supplier supplies wholesale to itself for instance, the article would need to include the smaller energy suppliers, like Ovo Energy, who charge far less than the big firms, could the article show how the big firms are rigged to justify the high prices, could anyone help get such an article started.--Pennine rambler (talk) 13:18, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Total electricity production
The total electricity production by generation sources has to be wrong. The shares of the different energy carriers sum up to 107.1%... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.35.72.172 (talk) 12:29, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Why is there a separate section for Scotland under 'Overview'?
The separate section for Scotland under 'Overview' is not matched by or contrasted with sections for other home nations. This would be fine if it explained that the situation in Scotland is significantly different from the rest of the UK, but it doesn't and feels tacked on, for who knows what reason.

The figures for the UK as a whole show change between 2004--10 as being -10% in emissions, whereas the Scottish figure shows change between 1990--14 as being -46% in emissions. Is the reader supposed to assume Scotland is cutting emissions faster than the rest of the UK? If so the same data ranges should be used.

Energy gap
The energy gap section is now very out of date - due to the recession, increasing renewable power and falling demand, the energy gap isn't a worry anymore and I think this section should be dramatically trimmed down. Absolutelypuremilk (talk) 20:11, 10 July 2018 (UTC)


 * It can be moved to a new history section. --Ita140188 (talk) 01:30, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

Energy consumption
There is a detailed section on energy sources but the section on information about energy consumption in the UK is completely missing. I'd be very interested to know how much energy is consumed in homes, in industry, in cars... how many Watt-years in electricity? How many Watt-years in gas? Etc. etc.

DouglasHeld (talk) 19:07, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

"Energy mix of the United Kingdom over time" chart
The energy sources are nicely displayed, but the stacked 100% leaves a terrible gap in understanding the magnitude of total production over time. Why not a stacked kWH instead of a stacked % totalling 100%?

DouglasHeld (talk) 14:52, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

Norway cable - missing
Very important to the UK energy stability is the new bidirectional cable shared with Norway. UK increasingly relies on wind, which is "bumpy" in production. Norway provides a huge energy storage capability in pumping water back uphill into reservoirs for later hydrogeneration. https://www.euronews.com/2021/10/01/north-sea-link-world-s-longest-undersea-power-cable-linking-norway-and-uk-is-now-operation

DouglasHeld (talk) 15:04, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

Inertia of electricity grid
The generation and power distribution of electricity depends on a dynamic physical property called "inertia" - which is present in in Coal and Gas generation, but not present in energy capture systems like wind and solar. So, innovations in electricity generational inertia are needed in order to move completely off of fossil fuels. https://www.nationalgrideso.com/electricity-explained/how-do-we-balance-grid/what-inertia

I think with so much description of the changing energy production profile of the country, inertia and energy storage are important topics to add. Perhaps in a section "Challenges".

DouglasHeld (talk) 15:08, 11 March 2024 (UTC)