We could break our dependency on Fossil fuels very quickly by offering a tax break on EVās all major manufacturers have them on the forecourt or are launching soon. The UK consumes (pre covid) 46bn litres of petrol and diesel just moving 20% - 30% of new sales could save 4bn-10bn litres which compounds every year.
Lets first tackle the low hanging fruit of those that have driveways and can adopt what is a better driving & ownership experience.
How do we fund it? Weāve given Ā£250bn in tax breaks to oil drilling companies over the last 13 years so there is a start. With less demand we donāt need them like we used too.
Itās all good weāll just let our Norwegian friends shove some of their spare hydro power our way.
Once weāve filled Dogger Bank (get your mind out of the gutter, snigger) with turbines and Homer Simpson has Hinckley C humming weāll be in a good place to kick on.
I agree in a way, and in fact we had such a thing in the early days of EV. IIRC it was Ā£2500 off a BEV (full EV) and Ā£1500 off a PHEV (hybrid). However, the reality was that manufacturers just played the game and just added that amount to the relative price they sold it at elsewhere, so it didnāt really help sales of EVs all that much.
The upcoming ban on fossil-fuel cars by 2035, whilst still a long way off, will force manufacturers to invest in EV R&D and give them a strong signal that they wonāt get a return from continuing fossil fuel R&D, and so will ultimately achieve the same objective.
If there is a concerted effort, I donāt think this will be much of a problem.
We solely install smart ev chargers that can talk to each other on an estate level to fluctuate the demand, depending on levels of need so that not all chargers are drawing maximum at the same time.
There are also alot of new systems that require less than a quarter of the energy demand of a traditional house by using infrared heating in properties, coupled with smart switches and solar panels.
Leave the electricity for industry, houses should be able to tap in to initiatives not just for insulation to reduce demand for the standing stock, but also wholesale heating and smart technology installation.
Youād be surprised how many old properties in their epcās state they need a 40 quid hot water tank insulation that would save 150 quid a year in bills. There are literally thousands
Good news that weāre more or less back to normal.
As far as fuel goes I suspect people will be keeping their cars more than half full as and when the opportunity arises, which should in and of itself provide us with a form of buffer against a repeat of what we saw a week or two back.
Thereās undeniably an issue with the wider supply chain though. Not just fuel but across the board, my basis for that is that no Government admits to a problem that doesnāt exist. But itās a situation where āsupply and demandā is actually an unhelpful phrase. In one sense demand unquestionably outstrips supply, in another supply is unquestionably keeping pace. And the problem is that on the one hand this distinction does matter, but at the same time to go any further than that statement is to stray quite firmly into the realm of politics. Frankly the next six months will be what theyāll be - a lot of people will be correctly judging the situation and how it will pan out, but we wonāt know who they are until itās too late.
EDIT: that was not intended as a loaded statement where I lean to one side - it could be that we overcompensate for the problem at the expense of other sectors, given that recruitment is a challenge across the board, or it could be that we undercompensate for the problem at the expense of the supply chain being pushed beyond a tipping point. Between the two is a very tight needle to thread.
If I were a HGV trained army solider Iād expect to be doing a tour of duty in Iceland ā¦ Tesco or Sainsburys fairly soon.
Christmas is going to be interesting, if the shelves are being kept filled (with some noticeable gaps from time to time) Christmas will likely stretch the system to breaking point. Turkey dinosaurs and canned carrots for Christmas dinner anyone?
Its only the posh, middle-class areas that have suffered for once, as people with time on their hands panic. The same will be true at Christmas, theyāll buy all the turkeys in October and Waitrose will have shortages but the Christmas eve people will probably be fine. Papers will still call it WW3 though.
Iām not going to debate whether those areas are āposh and middle classā as youāve clearly decided that for yourself. All Iāll add is that I wouldnāt personally say Stevenage, Clacton, Crawley or Tooting fit that description.
What I will say is that the more expensive areas are by definition the worst areas to live in if you, personally, donāt fit that description. Which few shop workers, cleaners, care workers, nurses, bus drivers etc do.
As for turkeys, well if weāre not importing them, weāre not getting as many migrants to help rear them, and the cost of living is going up, how do we get those turkeys from farm to fork? I agree that thereās a lot of unnecessary panic but itās based on fears that have some justification. As for the āChristmas eve turkey buyersāā¦ when is Christmas Eve ever a safe time to get one?
#67 - @Coolsmp - Iād take food at this point, I donāt want to seem ungrateful because weāve still got the family dog to eat but weāre quite attached to Spike.
#68 - @Rando - We stock pilled pasta but since the water stop running we have no way of cooking it, I canāt take another day of crunching pasta.
#69 - @altcoinking - +1 for crypto, we really need this on FT.
On that topic - who exactly do councils tend to use to drive gritters? Iāve never given it much thought but I was under the impression that it would be a combination of bin drivers (some councils have enough to cover all pre-whatever-this-is services, would be surprised if many have any surplus to do that and also grit), and temps.
Has anyone found a good source of information about the energy cap that actually says what the value of the cap is.
Every āarticleā Iāve read says that the cap is Ā£1,370 (actually figure is irrelevant as theyāre often very different), but then say this is for an average house and blah blah, itāll be different for everyone because itās actually a cap per kWh. Great, thatās what I want to know, but none of the articles ever seem to say what the actual cap is per kWh.
As such, while I assume I am on a capped SVT, because my fixed tariff ended and both the options I can choose from are higher than the current rate (which is about double what I was on before), but it seems impossible to actually find out. Even the ofgem documents talk about this average price instead of actual numbers: Default tariff cap level: 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022
UGHā¦ Iām bringing sarcastic Spongebob out again because Iām so sick of the fake/dysfunctional consumer energy āmarketā in this country. Privatisation has failed.
Oooh, finally an article that mentions " On average: 2,900 kWh of electricity and 12,000 kWh of gas per year.", so, at least now I can convert all these numbers into per kWh.
I guess though, Iāll have to wait and see when the actual bill comes to work out if the separate per unit and daily standing charge do exceed the per kWh per unit charge. I suspect they definitely would during summer months when I barely use any gas, but probably not in winter.
