Thread by @swardley

If I ever wanted evidence of Jacob Rees-Mogg being a major user of hallucinogens then I reckon this counts. It's up there with the hydrogen economy - gbnews.uk/news/jacob-ree…

X : No fusion plant by 2040?
Me : Not a hope, Anyway, realism is not the purpose.
X : What is?
Me : A narrative that fusion is the future energy source for hydrogen generation by electrolysis and so short term fracking and hydrogen generation by steam reforming is ok.

X : So, not really hallucinogens?
Me : Well, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. It's better than exploiter peddles propaganda to hoodwink population.

X : When do you think commercially viable fusion plants will be in operation?
Me : Whenever I talk to people in the field, they generally say about 50 years but then they've been saying that for the last 30 years. So, longer than you think but not as long as general purpose AI.

X : What should UK do?
Me : Short to medium term. Change the energy mix to far more renewable and build small modular nuclear reactors on the sites of decommissioned power plants. In particular, stop banning projects -

https://twitter.com/SarahChampionMP/status/1579433269938225153

In fact, I have an entire energy research group that started by looking at this subject by collecting words that seemed to matter ...

... then they categorised those words into common meanings and started to map out the space ...

... then they added areas of investment and actors involved ...

... before discussing the four things to focus investment on :-

1) energy mix (i.e. shift to renewable)
2) policy (i.e. legislation to support renewable and micro nuclear)
3) micro nuclear
... and ...
4) increasing awareness of supply chains including the grid itself.

X : What about microgrids?
Me : We need a better understanding of our grid before we can start dividing that up. We're not in that position at the moment, so useful but not a top 4.
X : Hydrogen?
Me : Lol.
X : Fracking?
Me : [#Facepalm]

X : What's wrong with hydrogen?
Me : Except transportation and usage then nothing if your intention is to continue supporting fossil fuels. The research group assumed the plan was to reduce climate impact.
X : Hydrogen from wind or solar?
Me : Lol. Try batteries.

X : No to hydrogen?
Me : There are some interesting use cases for storage with hydrogen and some industrial applications but that's far from the highest set of priorities. In any case, industry itself we pay for those on a use case basis. Focus needs to be elsewhere.

Me : In 50 odd years, assuming we have excess power from fussion then maybe but first of all, we've got to get there.
X : Rees-Mogg says we will have commercial fusion plants by 2040.
Me : I know, and if we don't we can make the hydrogen from steam reforming of fracked gas.

X : What's steam reforming?
Me : It's the process by which we turn fossil fuels into hydrogen. Over 95% of hydrogen is produced this way. There's nothing "green" about hydrogen today.

X : So, change the energy mix, focus on micronuclear and we can get rid of fossil fuels?
Me : It's a little bit more tricky than that and I'm not just talking about the grid.
X : Explain?
Me : Agriculture. Unfortunately our industrialised farming has knackered the soil structure.

X : What's the connection?
Me : Synethetic fertilizers. Ok, I've got another research group that looks into agriculture. They started with the common words that seemed to matter ...

... then they categorised by meanings and started to map out the space (you get the picture) ...

... then they looked for areas of investment, different actors and had numerous discussions to work out the things that really matter. In this case, it was identity, lobbying, education and awareness.
X : Eh?
Me : Ok ...

... in the West our soil structure is really poor due to industrialised techniques. We're reliant on synthetic fertilisers but we can't just stop using them (see Sri Lanka). We need to regenerate our soil but in order to do this we're going to need to create ...

... a new identity for farmers (we've abused farmers along with the soil for a very long time), we're going to need to lobby and change legislation to support this (i.e. more towards diverse, smaller farms, more focus on food yields and not profitability per hectare) ...

... we're going to need to educate consumers much more (issues of seasonality, labelling of food ) plus we need to massively increases our awareness of the supply chain. We need to do all this for regenerative farming at scale in order to cut off our dependency on fossil fuel.

X : And if we don't?
Me : Cut off fossil fuels and you'll get crop collapse ... along with a host of other issues.
X : Other issues?
Me : I have research groups in manufacturing, in defence, in construction, in retail ... you have no idea how fragile our society is.

X : Is this why you keep saying "Sri Lanka on the Thames".
Me : Oh, that's just this Government. People are playing all sorts of stupid in a landscape of supply chains they don't understand.

X : How bad is it?
Me : Think Hungary - phys.org/news/2022-05-c… - but we don't even have those graphs. We're driving a massive truck of explosive materials, far too fast, off road, in a forest whilst wearing a blindfold and listening to the Primitives -

X : What are they doing about this?
Me : The delusion of management, 55 Tufton Street, big name consultancies and oodles of old Etonians ... I expect they believe they can get through this with the sheer genius of their minds and a good slogan.

Better things to be done with any Gov money i.e. invest in renewable, in greater awareness of the grid and supply chain, in changing planning laws to encourage renewable and micronuclear. Fossil fuel industry should cough up its own cash for hydrogen -

https://twitter.com/thecarbontrust/status/1579470489436798977

I've never understood why Government insists on paying for things that private industry will pay for. If the fossil fuel industry wants hydrogen then let them pay for it. Our focus should be elsewhere.