Earlier this evening Great Britain saw a new peak in national electricity demand for winter 2025/26: 50.2 GW at 5.20pm. This is 2 GW more than in the last six years! But interestingly peak *generation* was at 12.30pm, when GB was making 52.1 GW! How's that work? We were pushing 3.4 GW to Europe!

Here's a real story you've not heard: the price of lithium has been on the deck since 2023. Its price is beginning to recover a little as demand for battery energy storage systems increases; BESS is likely to account for 30% of lithium consumption in 2026, versus 70% for electric vehicles

The big difference is that solar+battery is fit and forget. Once it's installed, whether from China or anywhere else, it's yours and you are independent. No more payments to anyone. With fossil fuels you're an addict, dependent on your dealer who can make you dance to their tune.

I'm pretty liberal but shops with no doors should be banned

If all the proposed AI data centres were built (and that's a big if) they would use about 3% of the world's electricity supply today. The electrification of heat and transport will roughly double electricity consumption. Data centre energy usage is not worth worrying about.

The big difference is that solar+battery is fit and forget. Once it's installed, whether from China or anywhere else, it's yours and you are independent. No more payments to anyone. With fossil fuels you're an addict, dependent on your dealer who can make you dance to their tune.

Where did Britain get its electricity from in 2025? 🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️ 🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️ 🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️🌬️ 🌬️🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌳🌳🌳 🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌊☢️☢️☢️☢️ ☢️☢️☢️☢️☢️☢️☢️☢️🔥🔥 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🇳🇱🇧🇪🇩🇰🇩🇰🇳🇴 🇳🇴🇳🇴🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 Explore the data for yourself on the Electric Insights dashboard: www.electricinsights.co.uk#/dashboard?p...

The scientific evidence is absolutely crystal clear: We are certain the world is warming because we're burning fossil fuels and putting more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere So we have to stop doing that We also need to adapt to the changes we've already caused www.channel4.com/news/uk-alre...

ICYMI this is a very impressive article from BBC News, who downloaded NESO data from their API and performed their own analysis. 'Wind was the biggest single renewable source of electricity... solar-powered electricity rose by nearly a third on 2024 levels'

Even a 'Chief Scientific Advisor' can be verrrry wrong. From ten years ago: 'The idea that renewable energy can power the UK is an “appalling delusion”, according to the final interview given by former [DECC] chief scientific adviser, the late Professor Sir David MacKay'

There is, to my mind, no justification for the continued use by the UK Government of X as a platform for official comms. There hasn't been for some time, in fact, but if the latest developments around AI-generated image abuse and CSAM don't change the policy I really don't know what will.

"2025 was the warmest spring, summer and calendar year in the Met Office official records which go back to 1884. It was also the warmest spring, summer and year for Central England, in a dataset which goes back to 1659. And it was the UK’s sunniest year (records back to 1910)"

The grid does need batteries to provide balancing to wind and solar over the 24 hour period. But that's tens of GWh; that will be delivered by huge utility scale batteries connecting at high voltage, often behind grid constraints. Small domestic batteries aren't necessary nor efficient.

Surely should be increasing their glow 😄 Seriously though, the share price of powerpoint reactor companies that have gone public have crashed as investors realise 1) small reactors have higher cost-per-kWh 2) small reactors make waste that's more expensive to deal with 3) most designs are fantasy

This is such a good piece. I'm fascinated by writing what people judge to be worth knowing and writing it in a way people judge to be good (and that's since long before I realised that's how Churchill made a living) It's hard to make money from it though. Only $1,500 from Substack in Justin's case

Today I learnt that more than 90% of Winston Churchill's income, throughout his life, was from his writing. Didn't quite pay for Chartwell but kept his head above water! Back when, perhaps, writing was worth more?

Sounds like the end of the 'fabric first' mantra being set out here. Electrifying homes is the way of the future, with solar panels, batteries and heat pumps being the focus of government subsidy.

Context for the quoted post 'Data analysed by the BBC show that Ukraine's Western allies have paid Russia more for its hydrocarbons than they have given Ukraine in aid'

I know BlueSky hates AI but I think it's brilliant. Often I'll treat it like a teacher who is a subject matter expert; I can ask it all the questions I need to understand things I otherwise wouldn't.

The Motor Retail model is fragile. Without finance & insurance it falls apart. EVs erode after sales revenue leading to hourly labour rates higher than your lawyer whilst those on the tools see little benefit. Many are little more than property co's. Complex. Happily I left the sector 2 careers ago.

I'm going through old tabs. From October: 'To further restrict the flow of funds to the Kremlin, the UK has today announced that we will ban imports of oil products refined in third countries from Russian-origin crude oil.' Very welcome; let's hope it's rigourously enforced. India is a big source

The astonishing thing about this article is that so few people seem to understand what a thermostat is

'The world is paying an ever-higher price for a crisis we already know how to solve. These disasters are not "natural" – they are the inevitable result of continued fossil fuel expansion and political delay'

I wasn't happy with BBC's reply to my complaint ("Sean Farrington is an experienced and respected journalist who is fully aware of our commitment to impartiality" yet didn't challenge the Vertu boss at all) so off to the next stage of the process we go

Power to the People

Earlier this month the Flamanville 3 'EPR' nuclear reactor reached full power for the first time, 18 years after construction began. In 2023 Olkiluoto 3, the first EPR to begin construction, also reached full power 18 years after construction began.

Earlier this month the Flamanville 3 'EPR' nuclear reactor reached full power for the first time, 18 years after construction began. In 2023 Olkiluoto 3, the first EPR to begin construction, also reached full power 18 years after construction began.

The electricity grid was pretty green on Christmas Day, with just 73g of CO₂ emitted for every kWh generated

While the BBC is obsessed with US politics*, the politics of Europe are far more relevant and a lot more interesting. Euronews has become my go-to source

The King praised the "great diversity" of Britain (weeks after the US claimed European civilisation was dying because of migration) and spoke warmly of non-Christian faiths He spoke against division and urged people to remember the principle of "doing to others as we would have them do to us"

Great advice in @monkemma.bsky.social's latest email 🎄🙂

"and 1,200-1,500 people participate in hope and unity march, outnumbering British Unity nationalists by more than ten to one" Nice one Exeter (sorry I didn't make it)

It is likely that 2025 will be the warmest year on record for the UK. Why does this matter? Burning fossil fuels is warming the planet, including the UK, causing heatwaves to get hotter. For Central England this is happening 2x faster than the mean change. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Based on modeling out its last three quarters of sales, NVIDIA appears to have shipped around 4GW of IT load - yet I cannot find compelling evidence that even 1GW has come online. I believe there are millions of GPUs in warehouses, waiting to be installed. wheresyoured.at/premium-how-...

It's over two years until Devon's local authorities will be reorganised into a single tier yet somehow that's being used as an excuse to potentially not hold local elections in May. Labour will likely lose power in Exeter; what's the betting they will bottle it?

Some good news (though we need beef demand to be falling, not 'remaining strong')

Never fabric first

What makes a heat pump install efficient? 📈 I presented the data-backed insights from @openenergymon.bsky.social heatpumpmonitor.org at a recent CarbonTrust webinar. Watch the recording: youtu.be/C16nBd85XOM?...

This research was made possible by @trystanlea.bsky.social and @glynhudson.bsky.social, the brilliant team behind Open Energy Monitor

The astonishing self-harm of European auto industry continues. Trying to turn your home market into a museum for last century cars means you might squeeze a few more years of revenue from them, but at the cost of obsolescence as consumers at home and in export markets vote with their feet.

BBC News headlining a story of no relevance to UK audiences, while completely ignoring the EU's breakthrough deal to loan Ukraine €90B interest-free to fund the next two years of its fight against Russia

Here go: very depressing to hear the chief executive of Vertu – the dealership network who service my EV – campaigning on #r4today for the government to abandon its already weak date of 2035 to end sales of new fossil cars. Nissan and JLR are investing £5 BILLION into EV production in the UK

We may already have seen peak electricity demand this winter, at 1720 GMT on 28 November 2025 (h/t @wiilp.bsky.social) Instant power demand on the transmission network was 47.9 GW (and there were no power cuts!) Coincidentally this was exactly the same as last year. Might still be beaten in Jan

Wage rises were 4.6%. Pensioners are protected by the triple lock (currently the avewage wages part), social security is increased by inflation (albeit on a seven-month time lag), and the minimum wage is going up by 4.1% (8.5% for the 18-20 year old rate) People are getting richer

Previously the ambition was to be a leading market for modern cleantech, with opportunities for EU industry to remain globally relevant thanks to a strong domestic market, this weakening means only following the electrification trend. Gone is the leading market, gone is the domestic market push.

EU's car makers have got their crowbar into the closing gap of fossil car sales. Before you know it, 'allowing 10% of cars to be petrol-powered after 2035' will become no restrictions at all

Robbie is right. We're just much more 'range-conscious' driving EVs, even though there are some 37,000 public charging stations in the UK, compared to only 8,000 petrol stations!

The new all-electric Nissan Leaf family car begins production in Sunderland today. Both car and battery are made in the northeast 👍

NEW | Electric vehicles (EVs) make up OVER A QUARTER of new car sales in 2025 – with many emerging economies moving fast in transport electrification. EVs enable countries to: 🛢️ Cut fossil imports ⛑️ Create new industries and jobs 🍃 Improve air quality https://loom.ly/pMmY5Y8

This has also been the result of the analysis of the data from @openenergymon.bsky.social Heatpumpmonitor.org youtu.be/SiHtzDNWAo4?...