12th Feb - Peter Rodell - 'Through the Plughole'

Illuminating talk on future energy needs

HAVING to adapt to a world with all-electric cars is not too far away, members of the Rotary Club of Furness heard.
Rotarian Peter Rodell said the provision of charging points at street level would need a serious re-think of planning regulations.
How many charging points would new large businesses have; what about multiple occupancy housing; and also the issue of where double yellow lines exist outside houses?
Peter, a retired nuclear industry specialist, said that ongoing changes in the electricity industry would accelerate over the next 10 to 20 years.
The demise of petrol stations was just one aspect of his talk 'Let's Go Through The Plug Hole' which mixed technical detail and graphics with anecdotal examples for the layman.
Only in December, the National Grid Electricity System Operator reported that  high winds led to a record for the amount of electricity generated by wind power, which led to a surplus and negative pricing  - where consumers were actually paid to use electricity.
Peter said that in 2019 the Walney offshore wind farm was the largest in the world with a capacity of 1.02GW. However it has been superceded this year by the Hornsea Projects (120km from the English coast) which will eventually have a maximum  of 6 GW.
It is well known that major televised events cause a big surge in demand  as people switch kettles on at the same time. Peter said it measured 1.5 GW after Andy Murray beat Djokovik at Wimbledon and there was a 3 GW rise in 50 minutes on Christmas Day morning in 2018. This equated to five nuclear reactors worth of supply!
A vote of thanks was given by Club President Brian Boyd and the meeting was also attended by Assistant Governor Dick Johnson.

Reported by Rotarian Graham Dixon