UK's Journey to Net Zero

  Dr Alan Jones, PhD, CEng, FIET.   Introduction Most campaign groups begin life because of some external developer planning an activity or development that is perceived by local people to result in unwelcome consequences for the community. This usually results in individuals coming together with the aim of objecting, of stopping the development, of making a noise and getting their views into the public domain as if to shame the developer in the hope they will go away.  Sadly, this tactic tends not to work too well with large developments, especially if they are of national importance. The result – disappointed residents who must resign themselves to both having failed in their endeavour as well as having to live with the consequences once the development receives planning permission and begins to take shape. Sadly, the probability of success will always lie with the developer, but campaign groups can enhance their arguments and effectiveness, and thereby their chanc...

Introduction As these cold winter months slowly turn into spring and our household electricity consumption begins to fall my  thoughts often turn to the question of why electricity is so expensive and, more especially, why Ofgem's  domestic gas price cap is around one quarter of the price cap for domestic electricity.   For example, in January 2025 the electricity price cap rose to 24.86p/kWh along with a standing charge of 60.99p/day against 6.34p/kWh for gas and a 31.65p/day standing charge.  Furthermore, in April 2025 these caps will rise to 27.03p/kWh for electricity against 6.99p/kWh for gas.   How can this be? Why should a unit of electricity cost almost four times that of gas?  And it seems I’m not alone in asking this question because reports from the both the   BBC and Apple News   have recently appeared in the media citing several reasons for this anomaly: ranging from high wholesale gas prices, the cost of subsidies...