A sense of the absurd
Posted on 08/06/2024 by Dougal Quixote
Shortly after I reported that the renewables company RWE operate the largest lignite(brown coal) open caste mine in North Rhine-Westphalia region in Germany and will do so until at least 2030; their purchase of new plant suggests that they may plan to continue well past 2030; we read that the largest high quality coal open caste mine in Wales at Ffos Y Fran, Merthyr, has closed despite millions of tons of coal still remaining on the surface. Not only the largest but the last sizeable UK Coal Mining operation. This is not an old worked out surface mine but a mere youngster of eighteen years with a bright future ahead of it. Neither was it high quality farmland but planned regeneration of a derelict landscape of burnt out cars, fly tipping and the remnants of the underground mining past. The reason is not commercial or the wish of the operators; one hundred men have lost well paid jobs in an area with little alternative employment; but simply because the Welsh Government will not give them planning permission to continue mining. So what is happening to those vast reserves of coal. They are being covered up to prevent people coming on site and stealing them. £millions are being spent to make millions of tons of high quality coal inaccessible. At the same time millions of tons of coal are imported from far away around the world to support our remaining coal fired power stations and steel works. A sense of the absurd lurks in the corridors of power both in Wales, Holyrood and Westminster that defies logic. Carbon savings(disputable) in the UK are but an ant on an elephants back in world terms and simply moving the mining to another country and then adding the carbon footprint of importing coal on ships makes a mockery of any Net Zero claims. CO2 is the staff of life needed for photosynthesis for growing crops and food. Digging up peat for wind farms, haul roads and for the OHLs undoes any good perceived of carbon capture and the myriad of schemes of the ranks of carbon bunnies now employed by local and national government. A footnote is that the mine operators are now awaiting planning approval for the forthcoming restoration work with the bulk of the equipment parked up and the drivers laid off. You could not make it up. The point I make here is that energy produced close to demand makes far more sense than renewables in the Highlands and off our coasts without the destructive infrastructure that goes with it. Energy density of coal and gas is good, Energy density of intermittent wind is poor. The high cost of imported steel(no doubt from China) whilst exporting the carbon costs to other countries, the carbon cost of all the concrete and transport surely vastly outweigh the perceived advantage of cancelling coal production in Wales. Common sense seems sadly lacking in the groupthink of renewables and the targets of Net Zero. Truth is the world has enough coal for many generations as it does with oil for the foreseeable future. So why are we pursuing an expensive and unproven dream which is simply not deliverable in any meaningful way. Modern technologies are cleaner and more efficient than those of past decades. Adapt to them and we can all benefit without destroying those areas we hold dear. And at a fraction of the costs.
ajmarciniak 