‘A massive gap in the electricity system caused by the closure of coal-fired power stations and growth of unpredictable renewable generation has created the real prospect of complete power failure.’
The Herald headline is an astonishing piece of hysterical hyperbole and ironically is based on a report by the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland (IESIS). The major sponsor of IESIS is Babcock, a subsidiary of Doosan of South Korea.
IESIS number one sponsor is Babcock:
Babcock belong to Korean giants, Doosan
Doosan Babcock specialise in ‘the delivery of construction, aftermarket and upgrade services to the thermal power, nuclear, oil and gas, petrochemical and process sectors.’ Doosan Babcock currently have a deal with French company EDF to maintain 7 of the UK’s 8 older nuclear power stations including Hunterston B in Ayrshire.
After 4 years of life-extension by Doosan Babcock, Hunterston B’s reactor has 350 cracks
Doosan Babcock no doubt regrets the disappearance of large power stations in Scotland as we move toward a distributed-generation-systems based on renewables. However, the notion that thousands of renewable electricity generation sites, wind, marine turbine, hydro, hydrogen, solar, spread across the land and sea, are more vulnerable than one or two massive nuclear, coal or oil-fired power stations is, in the wake of the Chernobyl and Fukushima failures and in the context of global terror, both astonishing and simply wrong.
Let’s see if and what, Reporting Scotland make of this exciting story, which the people need to hear of.
Talking-up Scotland 
Who are the main players at the Herald these days? I suppose there is hysteria-monger, arch unionist Tory, T Gordon, but I don’t read it and don’t look at the website any more, so have lost touch.
There is Gardham, who is now media somebody for Westminster in Scotland Office. I would guess he still has a huge input in the content.
I’m surprised Iain McWhirter still works there, thought there are no viable papers left in Scotland so he needs to have a job somewhere.
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It’s by a dick……Sandra.
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Good piece prof, the ways of large corporations as they try to manipulate nations psyche for profit, is quite disturbing. I would imagine that this sort of thing is more wide spread than people would imagine.
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Yes, probably quite common as they pursue their interests.
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Longannet should not have been closed as it was. The excuse that the grid charges were too high because of its distance from London were simply anti-Scottish political nonsense covering a deeper agenda of harming infrastructure north of the border.
The coal-fired station was within target limits for pollution for at least two more years and it could have been maintained in operation pending the construction of a gas-fired replacement which would have supplied the need for rapid deployment at times of high demand or low availability of wind power.
Proper development and deployment of large scale tidal generators would also add highly predictable and reliable base load capacity.
Uranium-based nuclear is too dangerous and has too many problems of long term waste disposal to be considered rationally. Thorium-based nuclear, on the other hand, could be attractive because it doesn’t have the waste problems. Also, it doesn’t produce material for atomic bombs.
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While we are on a grumble; the irritation I felt when the carbon capture research programme, for Longannet, had the funding pulled by Westminster has now been refueled with the anouncment of a world leading carbon capture programme, in England. The crowing also got to me, “the UK could soon be a leading player in this technology. We should have started earlier, we could have been leading the field by now”. What type of, head up their own arse bastard can come away with such gob shite, with such recent history at Longannet?
Breathe in “deep blue oceans” and out. Now where is that chamomile tea, aye the one that reminds me of cat’s piss, just before you take a sip.
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One plus for the Herald, was its reporting of the exclusion of “The National” by May’s staff from her press conference. This follows from the same newspaper being denied access to David Lidington a fortnight previously. I haven’t seen this reported elsewhere.
This is not a good look from a British Nationalist government in London, on a day trip (actually three hours) to Scotland.
Trump was widely criticized for excluding a CNN journalist from asking questions. I have seen no similar reaction from the media in the UK, on the exclusion of the National.
I see the Anglo-centric BBC is front runner to hold the debate between the leaders of the two main English political parties.
They will have fun divvying out Scotland’s fish stocks. As has become the norm over the decades, when Scotland’s fisheries are being negotiated, no Scots will be allowed in the room.
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Sky covered the National exclusion, very well. Except the two pundits in the studio after lamblasting the excusion went on to say that this would prove to be a huge OG “this will be all over the news in Scotland .” We wish, we wish.
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Michael Gove can advice them on the Peterborough (sic) port.
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Haha–good one John. I had forgot Mr Gove’s “local” knowledge. From the land of loons and quines, Gove is definitely a loon.
And a loon, now meaning a young lad, was originally a “loun”, derived from “a person of little worth”.
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