Bridging the Gap

In this post, I thought I would take a quick look at one of the driving forces behind the changing face of Britain’s power; the energy gap.

What is the Energy Gap?

It has been realized for several years now that the country is about to face a ‘gap’ in our energy supply. The gap would mean an insufficient supply of energy with Ofgem (an industry regulator) suggesting more blackouts by 2015.

What is Causing it?

This gap will be (and has been) created by the closure of old power stations. It is expected that 6 coal power stations, 3 oil power stations and 4 nuclear power stations will be closed by 2016. Power station closures are caused by stations coming to the end of their lifespans or failure to meet recently implemented clean air regulations such as the Large Combustion Plant Directive.

The energy gap is also being widened by the dwindling oil and gas reserves in the North sea. Figure 1 below was taken from a DECC report and outlines the decline in gas production from 2000 to 2012, along with the increased level of gas imports.

Figure 1 - Chart showing UK gas production and imports/exports from 2000-2012

Total indigenous gas production was down 14% from 2011 to 2012 alone with oil production falling by 14% from 2012 to 2013. This is important, as natural gas and oil are responsible for a huge proportion of our energy consumption (around 75%) as is shown in figure 2. Therefore, if these heavily relied on fuel types continue to decline, we will face a large shortage in energy production.

Figure 2 - Graph showing the energy consumption percentage by fuel from 1970 - 2012

How do we plug it?

That is up to us. Many bodies involved in the problem, such as EDF, suggest a mixed approach. This would involve the use of a combination of energy types to power our country. EDF have a nice summary of this approach on their website.

For me, the mixed approach seems like a good idea as I feel we don’t want to lay all our eggs in one basket so to speak. The decline in our current ways of producing energy will need to be buffered by many different methods, not just one. Apologies if this has been a heavy, stats driven post, I’ll leave you with a cartoon about Obama’s approach to the situation which I feel illustrates the issue nicely. Thanks for reading and as usual any comments are welcome.

What the Frack?

Recently, fracking has been in the public eye and has been subject to much scrutiny, especially from an environmental point of view. I thought I’d take a look at why this is, but first, what is fracking?

Fracking (also called hydraulic fracturing) is a method by which natural gas is harvested from underground rock, in particular shale. The gas is trapped in fissures within the shale rock and requires some persuasion in order for it to be released. This persuasion comes in the form of a concoction of water, sands and chemicals, otherwise known as slickwater. The slickwater is forced into pre drilled horizontal gaps in the rock under immense pressure. The high pressure causes fissures to expand, thus releasing the gas within. The diagram on the left illustrates the process.

The benefits of fracking are fairly substantial. Fracking represents a new way to extract gas to be used as an energy supply. This increased access to natural gas would therefore lower energy bills. Very handy in our current economic climate where gas and oil prices are skyrocketing. Particularly as large volumes of shale gas are lying dormant within our country’s rocks. It would seem fracking is a gift from the heavens for the country’s energy supply. However, the British public are not so easily convinced, but why?

What are the dangers of fracking?

Every potential hazard involved with fracking is the subject of much dispute as the topic is so contentious, but here are a few that have been suggested and/or witnessed:

• ·      The release of methane along with harmful slickwater chemicals intothe environment- this can pollute local water supplies and damage habitats. 
• ·      The causing of earthquakes- this has been associated with the insertion and withdrawal of fluids into the ground
• ·      Destruction of sensitive habitat by drilling- habitat may be directly disrupted by drilling
• ·      Local Communities being disrupted- some communities located near drilling sites complain about noise etc.
• ·      Pollution from the infrastructure involved with fracking- e.g. use of lorries for transportation

These problems range from localized issues to issues on a much larger scale, such as the earthquake issue. It would therefore appear that fracking has the ability to negatively affect people in many ways, some of which being potentially very serious. Consequently, it is easy to understand why people protest its use.

Whilst it is easy to see how our country could benefit from the use of fracking, I am also weary of the environmental concerns. I believe that if fracking is to be used on a large scale then its effects on local environments must be researched extensively and its use must be stringently regulated. I also believe fracking to be a relatively short term solution to our country’s problems as it does not solve environmental issues such as carbon dioxide emissions. In short, I believe fracking could prove a useful aid but should not be heavily relied on for our country’s energy production.

If anyone is interested further then the best way to read/watch material is to just search fracking. There is huge amounts out there and to cover it all would take much longer than just this post. Hope that was somewhat interesting and any comments/queries are welcome, thanks for reading.

Welcome

Hi everyone, I’m Will and I’m a masters student at UCL in London studying Environmental Modelling. I’m sure you can see from the title of this blog, I am interested in the future of Britain’s energy industry, especially ways in which the sector will have to adapt and evolve over the coming decades in order to power the nation.

As I’m sure many of you know, the last few decades have brought a vast rise in environmentally friendly consumerism, including rises in recycling and the increasing use of products such as electric cars in order to limit the impact that we as a species have on our planet. This population-wide change in disposition towards an eco-friendly mind set has also impacted heavily on our production of energy. This has largely manifested itself in changes in fuel sources from fossil fuels to ‘cleaner’ energy sources with lower CO₂ emissions. 

Environmental change and energy production’s effect on it has long been a fully charged debate (pun intended). However, energy production and indeed all topics that are linked with the environment are at the forefront right now due to the recent release of the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) recent report.

In this blog, I will discuss the different methods by which Britain will use (and is using) in order to fuel itself in the near future, along with the advantages and disadvantages that I believe each of them will bring to the table. The blog will also take a look at different energy companies’ approaches to these issues as well as general energy news. Hopefully you’ll find it interesting and I welcome any comments and queries you may have.

I’ve also included a link to a summary of the IPCC report in case anyone wants a brief outline of what it entails and BP’s Review of 2013’s energy trends:

BP's 2013 Review

IPCC Report Summary