Fossil-fueled chemicals boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe has an anti-EV tirade in today’s Daily Telegraph, littered with outright falsehoods, half-truths and selective facts
Exhibit 1: Far from "coming to a halt", EV demand grew by 25% in Q1 of this year
Let’s take a look shall we?
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Exhibit 2: Ratcliffe cherrypicks Germany – where EV subsidies recently ended – to argue that demand is drying up
As already mentioned, global EV sales grew 25% in Q1 of this year, according to the IEA
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How about China, Jim? Ah yes, EV sales are up 35% so far this year. But I guess that didn't fit your narrative.
Nor does the UK, I guess, given sales are up 11% in 2024ytd (31% for plug-in hybrids, on which more later)
It seems @mattwridley thinks @Telegraph readers are idiots
Let's run the numbers:
244,000km2 = area of the UK
5-10% = share of UK Matt says would need to be covered with solar to meet electricity demand in June
40MW = solar capacity per km2
500-1,000GW = solar capacity, if covering 5-10% of UK
300% = share of total UK electricity demand that would be generated by 1,000GW of UK solar
650GW = current solar capacity of China, roughly half the global total
<30GW = actual UK summer peak demand
15GW = current solar capacity of UK, of which ~10GW ground mounted
0.1% = current solar land take
70GW = UK govt solar target, because no one thinks we can run the country on solar alone
<1% = future land take
>20% = reduction in UK gas imports if govt solar target is met
Zero = credibility of Matt's article
Sources:
Land requirement for UK solar 40MW per km2 = 6 acres per MW, based on current solar farms; as noted in the article, govt says future farms would need 2-3x less land
Despite all the UK govt rhetoric about "new gas", confirmation today in parliament that govt expects unabated gas to meet ~1% of demand in 2035
Minister @grahamstuart, responding to an urgent Q from @CarolineLucas, described new gas capacity as "back-up…sensible insurance"
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In the debate, we also saw the mask slip from former sec of state Jacob Rees-Mogg, who as a govt minister paid lip service to climate action (left) but now admits he wants to "postpone net-zero indefinitely" (right)
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Responding to Rees-Mogg – who clearly still doesn't understand why geography matters when it comes to energy, trade, or indeed trade in energy – Stuart "chide[d]" him & said there was a "climate…emergency"
UK emissions in 2023 fell to lowest since 1879, new @CarbonBrief reveals
💷Emissions now 53% below 1990, as GDP up 82%
❤️🔥Drop in 2023 largely unrelated to policy
⛰️Coal now lowest since 1730s (!)
🚗Transport is largest sector, then buildings
⚡️Power now likely emits less than farms🐄
UK emissions in 2023 dropped below 400MtCO2e for the first time since the Victorian era, even falling below the levels seen during the height of Covid-19 lockdowns
£46bn – potential cost (2008 est = £9bn)
14yrs – potential delay (2031 vs 2017)
25TWh – expected output
10MtCO2 – CO2 saving, displacing gas
4% – share of UK 2030 Paris pledge
At risk – CO2 goals; EDF bottomline; Labour 2030 target
🧵
Let's start with cost
UK govt White Paper of 2008 estimated new 3.2GW (2*1.6) nuclear plant would cost £5.6bn, about £9bn in today's money
When agreed in 2018, it was £(2015 prices)18bn, ~£24bn in today's money
Now it's £(2015)31-35bn = up to £46bn today
On to delays…
Hinkley C was (infamously) going to be cooking Christmas turkeys in 2017
But now due it's online by 2029 at the earliest – and as late as 2031