Richard Lane

ufggggrrrrr.... trying to build a community solar farm but it won't stop raining

A large pool of still water (about 3" deep in places) covering a track through a tree-lined cutting. A bridge is reflected, grey and indistinct, in the distance, and beneath it a ghostly figure in black.

Cycle route 66 looking like the misty pools of Avalon this morning.

Ach you got there first

YouTube video by JescaHoop Jesca Hoop - 'Hospital (Win Your Love)' (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

Cf m.youtube.com/watch?v=nqXS...

Image of the River York level recorder showing flooding occurring from Jan 23rd and receding steadily since the 24th.

Some news outlets illustrating stories about Storm Chandra with photos of flooding in York, even though it's unrelated & receding. We're just too damn pretty.

#birdbot

Arghhhhhhhh "500 kilowatts, or enough electricity to power 400 homes for a year" why can't journalists get units right!? And this is the damn energy correspondent! Two sentences from the press release mashed together? Or a superfluous 'for a year' & very approximate energy consumption?

For the six or seven people from #York on here, I'm playing a lunchtime concert Friday Feb 6th as part of Esk, 12:30 at the Unitarian Chapel. It's a fundraisier for the York Energy Advice free service for vulnerable York residents. All the details at yorkcommunityenergy.org.uk/event/luncht...

Is this the same group you can donate to at sparkgaza.org/donate/ ?

Is the UK getting the credit for this? The fella's from Wisconsin. He's on bluesky too.

Zero rating on buspirone and imodium, and a state-provided screaming void in every neighbourhood.

British wartime propaganda poster: You are Helping by cycling when you can

There's so little about delivery - I feel some trepidation about the idea of a new central body co-ordinating delivery at a local level nationwide, don't you?

Yes, it commits that awful fudge of saying a house is "suitable" for a heat pump without making any analysis on whether it would increase heating bills for the house, which means it should absolutely not be something expected of most households esp. if on low income.

Good to hear that they may not be pursuing the 'supplier hub' model for this.

You'll remember Ovo failed Ofgem's new financial stress test in the autumn. Two energy suppliers folded last year. If another big one fails will we see some radical reform that it dodged last time?

V sensibly putting hydrogen aside - hope the door is closed on Johnson-era hydrogen froth. Some good bits about onshoring HP & insulation supply chain but no equivalent on PV supply chain (where greatest human wrongs are happening).

So yes: good (rare), but not proportionate to a climate emergency.

Heavy on the 'informed consumer-led' and 'smart technology' shtick as usual, which is inherently exclusive of vulnerable households. No indication of the role they see for community energy either other than vaguely being involved. They're reforming EPCs (good) but no promise of when. 5/6

A lot of stuff about finance but I tend to ignore that because as a rough rule any solution that involves householders getting into more debt is not going to flourish widely. £7bn-ish of grants may well though.

Large section about heat networks but I didn't spot anything new it in. 4/6

A lot's being asked of a new centralised Warm Homes Agency to support consumers & oversee quality of installs. We know advice is best offered locally, but perhaps they've given up on local authorities being functional in this parliament? No clear roles for the Net Zero Hubs in it all either. 3/6

Heat pumps installs are growing and they're providing needed steady support. Target is 450,000 heat pump installs per year by 2030 - less than a third of the number of gas boilers we're currently installing per year. So achievable, but not going as far as we need to wean us of fossil fuels. 2/6

Had a read of the Warm Homes Plan. There's a lot of good in it, but it is no radical shakeup that might address a climate emergency. Sticks with existing programmes that are working & tries to improve their reach for low income & vulnerable homes. A few things... (1/6)

Hands up if at some point in the past you thought 'well when the effects get clearer everyone will acknowledge what needs to be done, even if belatedly'. I'll admit to it.

Thanks but also I want 16 minutes back pls.

It's very Batman.

It doesn't seem like you've disagreed with me. The anxiety one is tough for everyone; we all have to find ways to function. I would urge: rather than giving up out of self-protection, find some small way you can help & let your consolation be that contribution - and the fact that you never gave up.

Yes, *if*. No evidence has been presented that it is.

Yeah sorry for the attack but this is convenient self-serving lazy reasoning. Truth is that how bad things get (dark age vs extinction) is a direct result of what we do now. The point where it doesn't matter is the point *after* our carbon-intensive society has collapsed.

Top US Chemical Weapons Company Selling Lethal Smoke as Non-Hazardous Safariland—a chemical weapons company that boasts annual sales of over $850 million—has removed vital safety information from its hexachloroethane (HC) smoke grenades, each of which is capable of kill...

It's the only medium post on the account, which has one follower. For all it's well written it's ringing alarm bells for me. The research referred to says nothing about green smoke and shows photos of grey smoke blog.ucs.org/science-blog...

A fairly complicated paper model with a nodding dog on top of a box with a axle and crank handle, reproduced a bit approximately from memory from a kit I had ~15 years ago.

Pah, who needs 3D printers when you can do this sort of thing with a regular laser printer and a bit of time.