That's not what's happening. Coal-fired power stations are being re-activated to cover the shortfall.
You do raise a good point - as electricity is fungible, and the power grid is built, operated, and maintained by a national institution, then how can a particular energy provider promise that their power is more renewable than that from the the others? Otherwise, every time Bulb gets a new customer, we are supposed to believe that they get all the renewable electrons, and the power supplied to the rest of us is just a bit more fossil-fueled.
I do know the answer, and that is that those companies just buy and sell the various "pinky promise" certificates and accreditations that pass for being "renewable" and "carbon-neutral" , and have nothing at all to do with actually boosting the supply of renewables.
It's still playing out as we head into winter, and is already being called a crisis. I've based my life around having everything within cycling distance, so should be ok as long as the roads don't get icy!
I was making a comment about the supply of natural gas for electricity generation. Gas prices have spiked, which is causing issues. Several providers have already gone bust.
Right, so they should have a competitive advantage over those "traditional" fossil-fuel burning electricity suppliers. That is, they can continue selling renewable electricity unaffected by gas prices.
Maybe, but this is a fun diversion that OP started.
The UK is also suffering from a fuel shortage that is affecting electricity distribution, exacerbated by a heavy reliance on wind and an ongoing period of low winds.
Oddly enough, it's all the little "100% renewable" power companies that are going bust, when you'd think they were independent of natural gas prices.
If you're going to look only at the power-to-weight of the engine itself and ignore everything else needed to make a car, I look forward to the superior hydraulic engined-cars!
>They've kind of hit the limits on ICE engines with the Hellcat Dodges (for example) but there's no reason an EV couldn't have power to weight ratios that are actually dangerous.
Yes there is - the vastly more energy-dense fuel used by ICE cars.
The Hellcat Dodge's power to weight of 318 hp per tonne puts it more in the soccer mom category.
The Caterham 7 620, with a 2-liter engine, gets 500hp per tonne, and that's half of what some of the exotic supercars have.
For reference, a Tesla has around 350 hp/tonne.
I think your perception of what qualifies as motoring performance is sadly lacking.
You do raise a good point - as electricity is fungible, and the power grid is built, operated, and maintained by a national institution, then how can a particular energy provider promise that their power is more renewable than that from the the others? Otherwise, every time Bulb gets a new customer, we are supposed to believe that they get all the renewable electrons, and the power supplied to the rest of us is just a bit more fossil-fueled.
I do know the answer, and that is that those companies just buy and sell the various "pinky promise" certificates and accreditations that pass for being "renewable" and "carbon-neutral" , and have nothing at all to do with actually boosting the supply of renewables.