Re: Thermal stores would help too
> Wind was generating nearly 20% of our power recently
It must have been for a very short period of time as I have rarely seen the generation rise above 3GW (it is currently at 3.5GW so today is an exception) let alone reach the dizzy heights of 6GW. When did it achieve this feat?
> an it wouldn’t be hard to introduce a 'lower than economy 7' tariff
Economy 7 currently requires a second meter so to have a third timed tariff it would require either a 3rd meter or a smart meter. The rollout of smart meters is costing about £12 billion, which will ultimately be paid for by the consumers.
> storage of cheap energy in the form of heat can easily be made economical.
Those of us who have had the Economy 7 and the storage heaters know just how crap they are. Storing the energy as heat is no use if you want the energy to run an air conditioner/fan in the summer.
> the sales pitch for the heat store reckons you can go on holiday for a month and still come back to hot water!
Lets see him put that in writing. I would also like to know what his definition of hot water is. Although, to be fair, it only takes efficient insulation to keep water hot, the problem is getting it hot in the first place.
> But hydrogen generation and reconversion was 85% efficient in the early 90's
Err no. Hydrogen has a turnaround efficiency of about 50% and that is with using the generated oxygen.