A new modern coal industry...

Soldato
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The government may give the green light for a new coal mine to be sunk in Cumbria extending out under the Sea. There is considerable local support for new jobs and the coal, metallurgical coal used to produce steel is 40% imported from Russia a situation unlikely to continue.
The decision is expected within 14 days following a report into the proposal. There may be opposition elsewhere in the country though.

 
I have no problem with us trying to use coal to lower our gas reliance on Russia in the short term. However as long as it doesn’t stop our long term goals of moving away from coal and gas. To a system of nuclear and renewables as much as possible.
 
The government will need to be careful not to move reliance on Russia to reliance on our home grown Commies in the unions not to cause grief...
That is genuinely a concern. If using coal is a short term solution. The inevitable union of coal workers will likely want to make it a long term solution, for their own sakes.
 
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Unbelievable. I work closely with a very large coal mining company and they have effectively been shut down because the government told them no more coal under any circumstances. Can see them launching legal action based on this.
 
The key thing is can it be done in an way that's economically viable for 10, 20, 30 years. Making steel in UK & Europe is expensive.

I think this will get the go-ahead though. Strong local support and it fits with the "levelling up" agenda. I guess the local Greens touting Cumbria as a tourist destination lost the argument.
 
I was thinking more along the lines of connect panels to a wind farm that blows towards the UK and then have wind farms along the south coast to harvest that wind and generate electricity for the nation.;)
Makes sense - personally I was thinking of a zeppelin type balloon with solar panels on the roof so the clouds don't block the sun
 
I was thinking more along the lines of connect panels to a wind farm that blows towards the UK and then have wind farms along the south coast to harvest that wind and generate electricity for the nation.;)
Nah charge batteries and ship em over and plug em into the grid ;) ez pz
 
To be clear this is for steel production, Port Talbot needs high quality coal for the blast furnace to make steel. UK power stations largely gave up on UK coal in the mid noughties for environmental reasons. Also there are only 3 coal stations left and they are all due to close soon although BEIS is asking them to stay open a bit longer which will probably involve a fairly large bribe subsidy.
 
I was thinking more along the lines of connect panels to a wind farm that blows towards the UK and then have wind farms along the south coast to harvest that wind and generate electricity for the nation.;)

Ah but have you thought of the knock on environmental effect of that torrent of air?
 
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