No Planet B

We re-release this 2026 podcast just as the UK government approved the controversial Jackdaw gas field in theNorth Sea owned by Shell and Equinor is predicted to generate between up to 36 million tonnes of CO₂ (CO₂e) over its 11-year operational lifetime. The opening up of this gas field will not change the price of gas as it is traded on the open market. UK natural gas prices currently stands at 214 pence per therm, - its highest level in almost four years

BUT! There are alternative!

In this episode we are looking at some of the challenging issues of our time. None the least is “how do we provide the energy for industry commerce and for domestic purposes without having to buy gas or oil on the global market”?

I think we're now all aware that because of the war between the USA and Iran fossil fuels are just not getting out to supply the traditional methods of energy generation to countries around the world. Gas prices have surged significantly since the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz. by roughly 44% over the past year. Petrol and diesel prices have shot up at the pumps and food prices are rapidly increasing in the supermarkets.

The UK is making progress on energy generation From renewable sources but the UK still relies upon natural gas. 22% of our energy mix from power stations comes from natural gas. As of early 2026, Also, approximately 23 million homes in the UK still rely on natural gas for heating and hot water, accounting for roughly 85% of all residential households. Since oil and natural gas are priced internationally the UK is highly vulnerable to the sort of situation we see in the Middle East. Renewable energy presents an ideal opportunity to make us independent of international fuel price fluctuations. Wind and solar are doing a great job but the problem is they may generate electricity at times when we don't want it. Oil and gas can be stored in terminals close to where it is imported but we haven't solved the problem of “how do we store electricity and provide peak demand”?

The massive rise in gas and oil prices has made it more urgent to switch to an energy source where the price is outside our governments control.

We've already proven that we can generate masses of energy from wind and solar. the government has for some time being contemplating how we solve the problem of Long-term energy storage (LTES), for storing surplus energy from renewable sources

The obvious solution you may say is to provide battery storage. But there are other methods of providing stored energy. In this podcast we're not going to try and cover them all.

With the help of our special guest Brian Darling we are going to look at pumped storage hydropower. Brian Darling is a chartered civil engineer and hydropower specialist and he has his own consultancy Darling Hydro Ltd. He has worked in Nepal, Pakistan, Georgia, Turkey and in a number of countries across Africa In the UK he has worked with such companies as Mott MacDonald.

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