January 26, 2019, T+26, Part 5, Day 1 Of Negotiations -- UK Grid Running On Fumes?

Super Bowl. Is it time for a daily quote from The Big Lebowski between now and February 3, 2019? Yeah, why not? First:

“You brought the *****' Pomeranian bowling?”- The Dude

Actually, 2018 was a pretty good year. American Greatness. Victor Davis Hanson. 

UK running on fumes? The grid holding during the current cold spell. Link here.

As many have been pointing out as the day has gone along, things have been getting pretty tight on the power grid. Above is the current situation at 5.30 pm.

Wind power has supplied little all day, and is currently running at under 2% of capacity. Solar power of course is effectively irrelevant at this time of year. [This is the UK: it has lots and lots of wind capacity -- but look at that -- running under 2% of capacity.]

Meanwhile, CCGT has been running flat out, and so too is nuclear given that Hunterston is currently shut down.

The government intends to close all coal power plants by 2025, which can realistically only be replaced by 13GW of CCGT, about half of our total capacity now, and equivalent to fifteen Carrington power stations.

Construction of Carrington took three years, but planning added a further five years.
Given that there is very little in the pipeline at the moment for new CCGT and the uncertainty surrounding future capacity auctions thanks to the ECJ, there seems to be little prospect that anything like 13GW will be available by 2025, or for that matter many years after. [Europe at a tipping point.]

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Saturday Afternoon

North Texas

January 26, 2019

Photo by Sophia.

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Ronnie Milsap's Duets

Released January 18, 2019

From Rolling Stone:

With his 76th birthday and the release of a brand-new album of duets just one month away, tireless entertainer Ronnie Milsap plans to spend plenty of time in the new year where he’s right at home — on the concert stage. The Country Music Hall of Fame legend, whose pop-country hits including “Any Day Now,” “Stranger in My House” and “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me,” kicks off the upcoming trek, the 76 for 76 Tour, with a January 16th birthday show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, which is likely to feature several surprise guests. Dates are currently on the books through May.

Mere hours after Milsap’s birthday celebration ends, another begins with the release of The Duets, a collection of many of the singer’s best-known tunes featuring a country music who’s who, including fellow Hall of Famers George Strait, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson as well as Kacey Musgraves, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Little Big Town, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and newcomer Jesse Key. Of special note are collaborations with the late Leon Russell and the final recorded performance by the late Troy Gentry of duo Montgomery Gentry.

“When you have a singer’s singer like Kacey Musgraves inside ‘There’s No Getting Over Me,’ or Luke Bryan bringing his whole heart to ‘Stranger in My House,’ let alone a good friend like Willie doing a brand new Mike Reid song or Dolly asking if she can write a verse to ‘Smoky Mountain Rain’ to make it ours, well, that’s all you can ever ask of the songs,” says the six-time Grammy recipient. “Mine have not only done me well, they’ve made a lot of people I love happy, too.”

It's an incredible album. I think the album moves Milsap a little closer to the center of the pantheon, perhaps next to Willie himself.

Lucy Angel at wiki.

Lucy Angel journeyed to China twice in 2009. The first time was in January when they gained the distinction of being the first American/Western group ever to be invited to perform at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square, doing so before an audience of dignitaries and government officials.[

In May 2009, the group was invited back to China for the Zhangjiajie International Country Music Week in the Hunan Province.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Lucy Allen and Ronnie Milsap