Electricity That's Too Cheap To Meter
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/12/electricity-thats-too-cheap-to-meter/
Nuclear power was sold to the world as a safe, clean, and economically viable source of electricity. We were told that it would be "too cheap to meter"1. Even the most ardent proponent of nuclear power will have to admit that hasn't come to pass. Construction costs for nuclear power stations are dwarfed only by their decommissioning costs. Yes, politics and regulation conspire to increase the price - but nuclear hasn't made electricity particularly cheap. Indeed, we mostly seem to be paying more than ever for our power.
Well, not quite.
On Christmas Eve, my electricity company emailed me to say that I would have several hours of free electricity. They would charge me £0.00 per kWh. More than that, at a few specific times they would pay me for my electricity use!
Here's the graph of my half-hourly prices:
Most factories and heavy industrial plants weren't running the day before Christmas. UK power usage spikes when everyone boils a kettle at the end of a football match or other similar event - but there was nothing so momentous happening at 3AM. So supply outstripped demand.
Anyone with a smart-meter could have been paid to charge their car, run their tumble dryer, or stay up until the wee hours playing on their console.
And was it nuclear power which did this? No.
As shown on the live grid tracker about two-thirds of the day's electricity came from renewables. It was pretty overcast, and our solar panels barely made 1kWh.
It wasn't mined uranium which gave us power which literally had to be given away; about 62% of the electricity came from wind.
At this point, the nuclear lobby will start whinging about subsidies (both nukes and renewables are generously subsidised) and how wind can't provide a base load (which is fair). But although sticking a bunch of turbines in costal waters is an engineering marvel - it's pretty cheap compared to building and maintaining a nuclear power station.
Wind - and other renewables - have done what nuclear couldn't. They have provided such an abundance of electricity that consumers are paid to use it.History and the Future
It's worth looking at the original quote from 1954 about electricity becoming too cheap to meter:
As well as nuclear, he talks about "photosynthesis". Well, the UK now has 15.6 GW of solar capacity across 1,430,994 installations. A small part of that is my solar panels!
The UK also has around 27GW of wind capcity installed.
It is entirely possible that the UK will have generated the majority of 2023's electricity from renewables.
Because home appliances are increasingly efficient, domestic energy use is falling - it's down 19% since 2010. Electricity use by domestic properties was about 96.2 TWh in 2022 and 135 TWh was generated by renewables.
Yes, electricity is fungible, but you can convincingly make the case that every home in the UK was powered by renewables.
Solar panels don't work at night, and wind-turbines don't work when there's no wind. We'll always need something to be able to provide a base-load of electricity. That might be nuclear, or fossil fuels, or it might be storage from the excess power from renewables.
Sadly, the world is still filled with war, famine, and disease. But, for a few moments on a winter's evening, wind power genuinely became too cheap to meter.Shameless Plug
If you want to move to a time-of-day electricity tariff, you can join Octopus Energy - if you use that link, we both get £50 bill credit.
There is a lot of contention about that phrase. It was (probably) about the future prospects of nuclear fusion - but it became attached to nuclear fission. You can read more at the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission ↩
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/12/electricity-thats-too-cheap-to-meter/
#electricity #environment #solar
Terence Eden’s Blog /
npub1ly…vruez
2023-12-25 12:34:59
Author Public Key
npub1lywey3rjuskr7kstpvwj3xafa56qrkfc6r7f665rxvw4sv2jw6ps5vruezPublished at
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"content": "Electricity That's Too Cheap To Meter\nhttps://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/12/electricity-thats-too-cheap-to-meter/\n\nNuclear power was sold to the world as a safe, clean, and economically viable source of electricity. We were told that it would be \"too cheap to meter\"1. Even the most ardent proponent of nuclear power will have to admit that hasn't come to pass. Construction costs for nuclear power stations are dwarfed only by their decommissioning costs. Yes, politics and regulation conspire to increase the price - but nuclear hasn't made electricity particularly cheap. Indeed, we mostly seem to be paying more than ever for our power.\n\nWell, not quite.\n\nOn Christmas Eve, my electricity company emailed me to say that I would have several hours of free electricity. They would charge me £0.00 per kWh. More than that, at a few specific times they would pay me for my electricity use!\n\nHere's the graph of my half-hourly prices:\n\n\n\nMost factories and heavy industrial plants weren't running the day before Christmas. UK power usage spikes when everyone boils a kettle at the end of a football match or other similar event - but there was nothing so momentous happening at 3AM. So supply outstripped demand.\n\nAnyone with a smart-meter could have been paid to charge their car, run their tumble dryer, or stay up until the wee hours playing on their console.\n\nAnd was it nuclear power which did this? No.\n\n\n\nAs shown on the live grid tracker about two-thirds of the day's electricity came from renewables. It was pretty overcast, and our solar panels barely made 1kWh.\n\nIt wasn't mined uranium which gave us power which literally had to be given away; about 62% of the electricity came from wind.\n\nAt this point, the nuclear lobby will start whinging about subsidies (both nukes and renewables are generously subsidised) and how wind can't provide a base load (which is fair). But although sticking a bunch of turbines in costal waters is an engineering marvel - it's pretty cheap compared to building and maintaining a nuclear power station.\n\nWind - and other renewables - have done what nuclear couldn't. They have provided such an abundance of electricity that consumers are paid to use it.History and the Future\n\nIt's worth looking at the original quote from 1954 about electricity becoming too cheap to meter:\n\n\n\nAs well as nuclear, he talks about \"photosynthesis\". Well, the UK now has 15.6 GW of solar capacity across 1,430,994 installations. A small part of that is my solar panels!\n\nThe UK also has around 27GW of wind capcity installed.\n\nIt is entirely possible that the UK will have generated the majority of 2023's electricity from renewables.\n\nBecause home appliances are increasingly efficient, domestic energy use is falling - it's down 19% since 2010. Electricity use by domestic properties was about 96.2 TWh in 2022 and 135 TWh was generated by renewables.\n\nYes, electricity is fungible, but you can convincingly make the case that every home in the UK was powered by renewables.\n\nSolar panels don't work at night, and wind-turbines don't work when there's no wind. We'll always need something to be able to provide a base-load of electricity. That might be nuclear, or fossil fuels, or it might be storage from the excess power from renewables.\n\nSadly, the world is still filled with war, famine, and disease. But, for a few moments on a winter's evening, wind power genuinely became too cheap to meter.Shameless Plug\n\nIf you want to move to a time-of-day electricity tariff, you can join Octopus Energy - if you use that link, we both get £50 bill credit.\nThere is a lot of contention about that phrase. It was (probably) about the future prospects of nuclear fusion - but it became attached to nuclear fission. You can read more at the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission ↩\n\nhttps://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/12/electricity-thats-too-cheap-to-meter/\n\n#electricity #environment #solar",
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