Wake up call for UK energy planners
Magical thinking about energy may not hold up much longer in the UK. Disagreements between European nations may scuttle plans for an integrated energy policy and with it the UK fantasy of attaining net zero. Central to the thinking of energy planners in the UK is the hope that an affordable solution to energy storage will magically appear. Batteries, green hydrogen storage and pumped hydropower storage are all hopelessly impractical and uneconomical. As a result, planners have eyed the vast hydropower potential of Norway. Its hydropower installed capacity is 32 gigawatts (GW). Hydropower accounts for 97% of Norway's electricity generation. Its hydropower reservoirs have a storage capacity of approximately 85 terawatt-hours (TWh).