More about those upcoming power cuts, I did warn you back in September 2009

'I have been "banging on" for some years now about the upcoming shortage in power generation in the UK and the resulting power cuts. My warnings, like those re houses being over valued, were met with the usual "oh it's NotaSheep being his usual pessimistic self". This morning The Telegraph reports that:

"Britain is facing the prospect of widespread power cuts for the first time since the 1970s, government projections show.

Demand for power from homes and businesses will exceed supply from the national grid within eight years, according to official figures.

...

The gap between Britain’s energy needs and demand throws fresh doubt on the Government’s assertion that renewable energy can make up for dwindling nuclear and coal capabilities.

Over the next 10 years, one third of Britain’s power-generating capacity needs to be replaced with cleaner fuels. But last night the Conservatives said that Labour had refused to face up to the problem.

The admission that Britain will face power-cuts is contained in a document that accompanied the Government’s Low Carbon Transition Plan, which was launched in July.

Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, outlined the plan amid much fanfare.

Under the plan, 40 per cent of the UK’s electricity will need to come from low-carbon energy sources including clean coal, nuclear and renewables.

Accompanying the report is an appendix, only published online, which warns of power shortages. It details supplies and expected demand between now and 2030.

It highlights the first short-fall in 2017. The “energy unserved” level reaches 3000 megawatt hours per year.

That is the equivalent of the whole of the Nottingham area being without electricity for a day.

By 2025 the situation worsens with the shortfall hitting 7000 megawatt hours per year. That is the equivalent to an hour-long power cut for half of Britain. "

The way that this Labour government delayed making any decisions on power generation and have still failed to replace old generating capacity with new reliable generating capacity - wind power is not a reliable source of power - is frankly not just disgraceful but criminal. One of the many investigations that an incoming Conservative government will have to hold, will be into this neglect of the nation's power generating capacity; charges may have to be laid against "responsible" ministers.

In the meantime, as I advised you last October:

"BUY A GENERATOR...

To paraphrase Sir Edward Grey "The lamps will be going out all over Britain; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

This government's eco-stupidity seems to know no bounds, unless this is just another piece of scorched earth politics."'

The Sir Edward Grey remark I paraphrased above was said to have been made at the start of the First World War and was "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

For some starnge reason I can find no mention of the impending power cuts on the BBC news website, I wonder why?


From this article written and posted in September 2009 I think I first started warning of this upcoming power shortage in around 2005. If it was obvious to me and others then, why did the Labour government do nothing to help and indeed actively prevent new power generation sources being built?