Comments by "Greg Greg" (@SlowhandGreg) on "How greenism killed British industry" video.

@schrodingerscat1863 70% of steel in the US is already made with Arch furnaces. and Just to point out the cost of Coal has doubled over the last few years (coke being processed coal). So there are multiple reasons why steel manufacture is declining with old plant becoming uneconomic even without the shift away from coal.
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It's just renewable energy is cheaper per unit than Gas and has been since 2020 Last year the Tory government spent 72 billion on subsidies to the energy companies to keep bills down due to the volatility of GAS on the world commodity market
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@schrodingerscat1863 And why can't ours be if we invest in an up to date grid and renewable energy. A lot of the b1tch1ng about costs are down to the Tories pulling the plug on a lot of investment since 2010. For example we would use less energy to heat our homes if we didn't have the worst insulation standards in Europe.
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@schrodingerscat1863 I have thermal solar installed due to inflation and the price hikes in gas it will pay for itself in capital cost by next year. At which point 75% of my hot water is Free for the next 19 years of it's expected lifespan. And that's how it works and that's why green energy is cheaper. You have Zero input energy cost. Also if I had a heat pump (which I don't) I could add another water tank as a thermal store and run the heating off the Thermal solar combined with the heat pump to use next to no electricity for heating. So green energy is basically free you have capital costs and due to inflation the payback period gets ever shorter.
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Because we still rely on Gas and also the way the grid and OffGem structure the energy market You pay a price based on the last mile principal at peak demand time this is provided by Standby Gas Generation. Energy consumption is expressed on a chart is called a duck curve. So you need enough capacity on the Grid to meet the evening peak demand. To fully utilise say wind you need to add Mass Storage to buffer the always on Power to flatten the demand curve and Smart tech to time shift demand to fatten it. Mass storage even using something like a Tesla MegaPack which is pricey pays back it's capital cost in savings in under 2 years by removing the standby Gas Generators which are expensive Hope this helps
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The move to renewable energy is economic, if you want to get into the CO2 debate then that is the pointlessness of carbon capture back in 2020 renewable energy reached price parity with Base Gas generation since then it has become ever cheaper in comparison
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Last year the Tory government spent 72 billion on energy subsidies to keep consumer bills down because of the volatility of GAS on the world commodity markets Renewable energy reached parity with base Gas generation back in 2020 before the energy crisis Governments around the world are looking at ways to disconnect their domestic economies from the Economic Shock of volatile commodity prices they have no control over.
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Currently Nuclear and Coal are per unit x 2.5 greater the cost to the grid of for example Offshore wind on a forward contract basis Last year the Tory government spent 72 billion on energy subsidies due to the international price of Gas to keep domestic consumer prices down.
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@gregorymalchuk272 Cost of electric is dictated by the final mile cost which is Standby Gas Generation. Also our Base load is still mostly generated by Gas but we do have a decent amount of Nuclear (base load = 40%) Wind accounted for 26% in 2022 If you want to maximise cost savings to utilise always on power such as Wind and Nuclear you need to invest in mass storage to remove Standby Gas Generation.
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@gregorymalchuk272 You've obviously not seen the price of coal recently. Coal like gas is subject to extraction, processing and transport costs + inflation and is a world traded commodity it's price doubled over the last few years and hasn't gone down.
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@gregorymalchuk272 Coal isn't cheap anymore and even if you opened the proposed mine there are considerable costs + you need markets + transport links + processing. The US has it's own coal and any exports to the EU will be hit with tariffs given that they have their own coal mines. Your also tying yourself into world traded commodity costs and we know where that story ended up going with major economic Shock all across Europe rampant inflation and our own energy costs quadrupling.
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@gregorymalchuk272 Our coal is deep mine coal and expensive to extract. Coal mines are shutting down in the US as well due to the fact that Coal Fired Power Stations can't compete on price with new renewable technology which gets cheaper year on year. That isn't a Republican or Democrat thing Coal production and jobs fell by 23% during the Trump era. And Texas is the leading state in wind farm deployment.
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@ach3144 Lithium is being replaced with Sodium - ION plus other technologies (A Mass Storage site near Manchester is using Liquid Air) Build density is a fraction of that of a power station Shelf life is 25 years and 95% of the components can be recycled and Hydraulic Fracking consumes 100 million gallons of water per well turns it into toxic goop and needs relocating every 2 years with all the devastation it causes below and above ground to the environment. Stop with the fossil lobby BS
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I would add Battery Mass Storage such as Tesla Megapack is software driven and near on Maintenance free bringing huge cost savings in Grid stabalisation. Even if it currently does use Lithium and The US has just discovered the largest Lithium deposits in the world in very high concentrations in solidified volcanic mud.
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@johnboy14 current cost of nuclear has skyrocketed to a point it's build and runnihg costs are uneconomical against tidal and hydro. Did some numbers on hinkley C it's 40 billion to build with 35 years of subsidies at 40 billion, its taken 7 years in construction and its going to be another 2 years before it's commissioned. The equivalent cost of an offshore wind farm is 11 billion, which takes 2 years to build and produces electricity at 1/3 Rd of the cost per unit. For 30 billion, you could eliminate Gas peak standby generation and replace it with mass storage which is the biggest driver of costs on the grid.
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we are moving to renewable energy because it's cheaper offshore wind from Dogger Bank for example has a forward contract price that is well under half that produced by a Coal Power Station. Last year the Tory government subsidised the energy providers to keep consumer costs down by 72 billion because of the volatile price of GAS
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@audreysuter4315 and how do you know? Have you looked into the economics of a renewable grid or how much adding Mass storage would save consumers?
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Port Talbot is closing because of brex1t in 2026 the EU will implement Carbon Tariffs on non green steel it is uneconomic to keep it going
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@schrodingerscat1863 I don't see what your point is? Port Talbot would still have a future if we were still in the EU
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@stevejones2310 There are 2 markets the EU and the US were cut out of both as both look inward. Smell the coffee, the worst deal at the worst time by the worst government in UK history.
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@michaelhart895 In 2026 we are faced with a carbon tax regime to import to the EU Our total sales and exports of physical goods by volume has dropped by 7% since 2019 the biggest fall on record. We are so totally fked
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If your going to go on a tirade over renewable Energy get your facts straight and don't introduce complete misleading BS and both Tata and Petroineos are private companies so how is Milliband killing British Industry? Port Talbot is closing because of brex1t On June 30, 2026 the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) will be fully operational in the EU. (CBAM) applies a charge to carbon emitted during the production of imported carbon-intensive goods, such as aluminium, cement, iron and steel. At which point it becomes uneconomic to export there and there is no certainty of exports to other markets since we decided to become billie no mates. and Petroineos is a joint venture between PetroChina International London (PCIL) and INEOS Group, a British chemicals firm founded by billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The company cited economic difficulties as the reason for the closure, stating that the company had invested $1.2 billion since 2011, and returned losses in excess of $775 million over the same period. "Grangemouth is increasingly unable to compete with bigger, more modern and efficient sites in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Due to its size and configuration, Grangemouth incurs high levels of capital expenditure each year just to maintain its licence to operate," the company said.
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Luddites were in control we voted them out
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The UK has spent far more on Fossil subsidies than it ever has or will on renewable subsides also The Tories spent 72 billion last year on energy subsidies to keep consumer bills down because of the volatility in world commodity Gas prices
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@cp4512 From the same report, nice cherry picking by the way. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has stated that continued dependence on volatile gas markets “could be as expensive fiscally” as reaching net-zero emissions, or even twice as costly if no action to decarbonise is taken. The OBR report just looked at generation it didn't take account of the cost saving impact of Mass Storage
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@billbogg3857 The tech for moving peak demand to battery mass storage has been with us since 2018. It looks expensive on the surface but saves it's capital cost within 2 years. We've had idling Peak Generation plants for decades there not as a result of renewables. You wouldn't run the grid on solely 1 energy source because we've seen what happens with GAS how dependence. So I have thermal solar it produces on average 75% of my hot water by heating up a 500 litre tank. Even in winter there is still some input energy on sunny days. An insulated water tank is a Thermal store if I had a heat pump for my underfloor heating it would use the pre-heated water before using electric lowering my heating bills in the process. The stuff is out there now to lower costs for consumers it just takes capital investment and a bit of forethought.
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@billbogg3857 a lot of that can be solved by more domestic generation and the use of heat stores like heavily insulated water tanks to time shift demand. Also we have the worst insulated homes in Europe The there's V2G The grid of the future looks nothing like the grid of the past with huge set piece Plants next to urban areas
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