Mastodawn

The narrative that all we need to do to solve our energy crisis is to exploit the North Sea more is undermined by the actual output of those field issued exploration & production licences in the last decade... they're not producing very much at all.

Rather than listen to the fossil fuels lobby what the UK needs to do is really push further with the green transition to renewables & better storage.

Here, Ed Miliband is on the right side of history!

#energy #renewables
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/28/north-sea-oil-gas-licences-conservatives

Hundreds of North Sea licences granted by Tories ‘produce only 36 days of gas’

Exclusive: Findings cast doubt on claims new drilling would help cut bills and boost energy security, researchers say

The Guardian

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ohir 3d ago

@ChrisMayLA6
> better storage
For the storage we since 1880 have a tech that is being actively buried since around 1990.

I mean C.A. Faure batteries. Their energy density of ~80Wh/dm3 is not that high, but their other properties are ideal for the storage of solar and wind enwrgy. The most important property is that these batteries are practically perpetual - given no planned obsolescence additives were used.

The sulfur cristals buildup can be dealt with either with high-current reformatting or, in pure mechanical way, where the PbSO₄ paste is removed, grinded, then the plate is reconstructed as new. Both processes were performed by "Car Battery Regeneration" shops until industry rediscovered Ca⁺ additive, once upon a time discarded exactly for the reason of impeding regeneration process. Pure Faure's setup is perpetual. In mass storage both regeneration techniques can be fully automated and performed continously, on-site.

I recently did a rough assesment of such storage for the 3TWh battery that could serve whole Germany for 24h period. It got at 10bn € for 3TWh storage, in 100k x 1 x 4m casing ;)[details soon]

United Kingdom subsidizes Big Oil, **annually** twice to this ammount (£18bn). UK would have some 5TWh storage facility (under M1/M4 verge) for those money.

https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/resource/fossil-fuel-subsidies-in-the-uk-who-pays-who-profits/

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ohir

@ChrisMayLA6
8kWh/m3, lead: 7kg/dm3, 7t/m3. Target capacity: 3TWh @ 80%.
Lead once sealed in the battery plate/case no longer poses a toxic threat to the environment.

Highway verge 4m wide with same 1m high plates under give 32MWh per km. We can store our target 3TWh under some 100km of your nearest highway unused otherwise verge. The grass can stay over the battery compartment covers. If we'd put our battery under highway sides, we could have 3TWh spread over some 50km.

Raw material costs: For 3TWh you would need 2.800.000t of lead. Considering current data [1] it would be 15-20 years of the WASTE tailings processing. I.e. getting all that lead off the landfills where it goes now. If copper ore processing in Europe, especially in Poland, would care more about lead output we probably could do such storage in 10 years. Sulfur now is a waste byproduct of the natural gas purification facilities.

P.S. For local storage facility we can use existing parking lots. The suburban mall parking lot of 30x50m stuffed 1.5m under surface with 1m high plates gives 12MWh max, 10MWh safe (unlike with car batteries, the static setup allows for 80-85% discharge).

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972300654X