Le aziende petrolifere e del gas del Mare del Nord nel Regno Unito “non riescono a investire nelle energie rinnovabili”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/27/north-sea-oil-and-gas-firms-in-uk-failing-to-invest-in-renewable-energy
di topotaul
4 Comments
Surprise surprise. If you look at their advertising though they’re going full throttle into a renewable revolution. Greenwashing to the max.
Renewable energy in the UK requires gas and will continue to do so for at least a decade. The problem is we have wind lulls which cover the whole region that last for days, and solar generates a tenth of its summer output in winter. There isn’t a reliable natural balance between the renewable energy sources, and the same applies for neighbouring countries and our whole region, which means we will need much more storage than currently exists, or that can realistically exist with today’s technologies. Gas is necessary to plug the gaps.
I’d much rather North Sea oil and gas were allowed to do what they are experts in, and produce domestic oil and gas so that we can rely less on imports. We’re currently projected to import 70% of our gas by 2030.
It does nothing for the climate to block development in the UK, all it means is a slight shift in global energy markets to open up more production elsewhere, and we are fully exposed to global markets without the protections of domestic production, and we pay much more because of the lack of domestic tax, and the costs of transporting gas in particular.
We have a world leading industry in the UK, one of the few areas where we genuinely excel, and we want that industry to become something different, with completely different skills, with no benefit for the climate or the country.
No one with any technical expertise thinks we can eliminate oil and gas demand on the timeframe that we are getting rid of domestic production. We should focus on reducing demand, through insulation, heat pumps, electric cars and the like, not reducing domestic supply, which does nothing for the climate, but increases costs and damages our interests.
This kind of attitude is why we pay the highest industrial and domestic electricity prices in the developed world.
Just let those companies go under in future if they didn’t prepare enough, no doubt other companies can and will take their spot. If they are choosing not to invest and suffer for it later it’s down to the failure of management of the companies and should be treated as such.
This is like reporting that Tesco isn’t doing enough to compete in Formula 1.