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The UK government has just quietly published estimates showing wind and solar will be several times cheaper than gas, for the foreseeable future
(media.kbin.social)
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/climate/t/295076
UK gov 2013: Offshore wind? That'll cost \ £150/MWh in 2025
UK gov 2016: OK, maybe only, ooh, £115/MWh in 2025?
UK gov 2020: Er, um, yeah it's pretty cheap…call it £62/MWh in 2025?
UK gov today: Did you see HOW CHEAP offshore wind is?!? Yeah, ikr? £44/MWh in 2025
Ref https://twitter.com/DrSimEvans/status/1687500048622395396
Indeed. Why stop there? Every new build should be built to Passivhaus standards and all social housing should be upgraded to be as energy efficient as possible. It'd really boost the green industries and economies of scale would help drop the price for those upgrades for everyone else.
I would go further and say that a lot of social housing needs to be torn down and built to a much better spec.
So much was built in the late 60's and 70's, it was built poorly by the standards of the day as they didn't expect it to last as long as they have. They have not been maintained to the levels required, and you cannot just "insulate them" because they don't have the correct design to handle what is required.
On the other hand you'll have people complaining about "breaking up communities" if we did earmark a bunch of money to move people and rebuild to modern standards, so it's a lose lose situation.
There is a reason why people in Britain seem to think that damp is a normal thing in houses, whilst everyone else doesn't.