And there we have it.
We have in this thread,working together, but maybe not all agreeing, shown that both OIL and COAL are not the fuels that are going to make us energy secure in the UK in the long term, and maybe even not in the medium term, due to supply (local or imported), cost of extraction, labour skill availability (coal mining).
Generally, I think we all agree that a mix of primary fuels is required to provide our electricity. The mix will have to change over time, but the general move should be to a final position (IMHO) of:
Base load of Nuclear (fission to start, maybe fusion in the long term (maybe more than 20 years 😁))
Base load of Gas Turbines with 90 day storage
Hydro (as in Wales)
Tidal
Solar
Wind
3. through 6. is where the focus needs to be, both planning, investment and implementation. Planning rules need to be applied to minimize local and irrelevant objections. (e.g. noise, "they're ugly")
1., in my opinion, needs planning and regulation changed to make planning and implementation quicker, and therefore, costs lower.
As they say on LInkedIn I'm "Open to Work". Just get out of my way 🙂.