danieldwilliam

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• Commented on The coming storm
  I'm excited and optimistic about the long-term impact of renewable energy, solar PV especially. I think over the next 20 years we're going to find ourselves living in a world with abundant and cheap energy and that the energy will...
• Commented on Pushing it back
  Do the actual buildings currently standing date back that far? I was under the impression that most of actual buildings in the Old Town were Victorian replacements of earlier buildings but on the same road layout and footprint....
• Commented on Decision Fatigue
  If you commit a GDPR offence and have any assets in the EU or moving through the EU, or want to trade in the EU or with any EU domiciled entity then the GDPR regulator in an EU state will...
• Commented on Decision Fatigue
  Re 31. And I think that is exactly the business model the company I'm thinking of appears to be following. They've got (so they say) some interesting nano-tubes for filtering feedstock out of dirty water and are electrolysing hydrocarbons out...
• Commented on Decision Fatigue
  Re 14. I think you have enough of a round trip efficiency issue with converting solar energy in to hydrocarbons and then converting those hydrocarbons in to either movement or electricity that solar PV and wind will retain significant cost...
• Commented on Decision Fatigue
  Some energy geologists published a study recently about the number of sites potentially available for artificial reservoir pumped hydro - so places where you have two valleys with a significant height difference but no river feeding one or both. Andrew...
• Commented on The gathering crisis
  I expect we'll see continued industrial action over the next 12 months and probably a significant increase in trades union membership. The Labour Party is probably correct in their assessment that struggling working class voters who are fed up of...
• Commented on Fossil fuels are dead (and here's why)
  I expect countries in the Global North will use more offshore wind power than solar PV if they are that worried about the geopolitics....
• Commented on Fossil fuels are dead (and here's why)
  Shell owns about 6 GW of offshore wind farms including an investment with Scottish Power in a floating offshore windfarm just let under by the Crown Estate. So they do invest in renewables....
• Commented on Fossil fuels are dead (and here's why)
  I spent some years as an energy market analyst and policy wonk. I think fossil fuels are dead long before anyone puts huge solar panels in orbit. Infrastructure projects take a long, long time to happen. The energy industry plans...
• Commented on So you say you want a revolution
  I think there are three scenarios for Johnson's exit as PM in 2021-22. 1) Johnson stands down voluntarily in January, citing mission accomplished on Brexit but the long-term impacts of Covid. He goes off to cash in writing newspaper columns...
• Commented on So you say you want a revolution
  I'm expecting significant disruption to physical goods movement in the UK for some time after 1st of January. I think we will be lucky to avoid noticeable food shortages. We may actually end up with shortages of calories. These may...
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  I'd been thinking about this sort of thing on my walk to work recently. I think two very important factors that will influence whether the world turns out to be an okay place to live or not are 1) economic...
• Commented on Unforeseen Consequences and that 1929 vibe
  BitCoin is a bit of a puzzler and every time I come across any serious discussion of it it makes me starting thinking about what "money" is. I tend to view that BitCoin is a Ponzi scheme. However, if it...
• Commented on Trapped in the wrong trouser-leg of time
  There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch was a favourite saying and a book by Milton Freidman, the 1976 winner of the Nobel prize for economics....
• Commented on Trapped in the wrong trouser-leg of time
  I think you are underestimating the current performance of already existing batteries and the many other forms of storage available. I think also you need to factor in offshore wind turbines. There are currently about half a dozen 6MW floating...
• Commented on Help Wanted at the Climate Policy Sausage Factory
  There is apparently US Federal funding to research kelp farming with robots. http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/robotic-kelp-farms-promise-an-ocean-full-of-carbon-neutral-low-cost-energy...
• Commented on Help Wanted at the Climate Policy Sausage Factory
  That article draws heavily on this piece by Tony Seba. https://www.rethinkx.com/transportation/...
• Commented on Help Wanted at the Climate Policy Sausage Factory
  I think there is something around R&D and in particular stranded assets. Energy technology is developing pretty rapidly. The technology is changing faster than the life-cycle of the assets that are (or used) to be built. Costs are falling but...
• Commented on Crying fire in a crowded theatre for pleasure and profit
  I wonder about the Great Panic of AD 33 https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/research/panics/ancient-panics/financial-panic-of-33ad/...
• Commented on Crying fire in a crowded theatre for pleasure and profit
  Edison and the elephant that he used to influence opinion in favour of his electricity genertors. Baby milk manufacturers. The tobacco industry? The use of anti-German propaganda by the US temperance movement after the Great War. Payment Protection Insurance....
• Commented on Crying fire in a crowded theatre for pleasure and profit
  So we're looking for things that either A) influence public opinion so that Option A is chosen over Option B and you happen to be long Option A or B) create a panic or a shortage when you happen to...
• Commented on Catching Up
  I wonder whether Corybn would want to bring down May's government in the near future or whether he thinks it would be better to let them take a battering in office for 2-3 years. I'm unsure if he, personally, actually...
• Commented on Catching Up
  Which is a majority of 61 in England. Also EVEL is not quite the barrier it appears. For starters it's only a House of Commons standing order and secondly it only give English MP's a negative veto - they can...
• Commented on Catching Up
  The new proposed constituency boundaries are supposed to roughly equalise the size of constituencies to within +/- 5% and with fewer exceptions for geographical and community boundaries. Which is not crazy. There are two practical concerns with the proposals. The...
• Commented on Catching Up
  There is quite a variation in turnout by constitutency. http://www.ukpolitical.info/Turnout15.htm 2015 figures range from East Dunbartonshire at 81.93% to Stoke on Trent at 51.26....
• Commented on Catching Up
  It is a tenet of the UK constitution that the Queen does not have personal political opinions. Even asking the question would be approaching a constitutional crisis. (See Charles and his letters.)...
• Commented on Catching Up
  I was talking to my daughter about this before the election. She's in first year at uni. Lots and lots of effort to get students to register and who knew that "the kids" would be all over online registration and...
• Commented on Catching Up
  It's a bit of mess. As Jacob Rees-Mogg might say, a bit of shambles. I think the best outcome likely is a series of small, containable constitutional crises arriving all at once. The DUP being deployed to vote on English...
• Commented on The World of Tomorrow
  I have an Unmanned Warrior t-shirt....