What will collapse next....

[regprentice]

6 hours ago, markyh said:

Thats' EV's taking effect. 1 million + on UK roads now. 1 Million less Fuel customers weekly. 

Thats a fallacy - Close to half of UK electricity is still generated by burning fossil fuels.

Since covid demand for oil in the uk has increased year on year. 

The closure of Grangemouth is about a Chinese company (Petro China) emasculating the UKs ability to refine oil, and turning Scotland refinery into a import hub for cheap foreign produced oil. Reuters report Grangemouths main issue was the same as all british manufacturing - it couldnt compete with Chinese competition even after the cost of transporting foreign oil to europe.link

[markyh]

3 hours ago, regprentice said:

Thats a fallacy - Close to half of UK electricity is still generated by burning fossil fuels.

 

1/2 of all UK electricity is made from burning oil, Petrol or Diesel, which is what the refinery makes?  I must have missed those huge dials on gridwatch.  Care to post a link to them? 

 

[Maghull Mike]

https://nitter.net/HanShanEH/status/1731186074221740530#m

Updated policy

[regprentice]

5 hours ago, markyh said:

1/2 of all UK electricity is made from burning oil, Petrol or Diesel, which is what the refinery makes?  I must have missed those huge dials on gridwatch.  Care to post a link to them? 

 

i said almost half , not half

40-43% of electricity is from fossil fuels, and the proportion of fossil fues in that mix is rising not falling - Renewable power made up 40% of Britain's electricity in 2022 - but fossil fuel share also rose. another 5% of energy is imported which also includes gas generation. 

fossil fuels also represent 75% of all energy use in the UK. 

[msi]

Somerset Capital Management to wind down after client losses

Somerset Capital Management, the boutique fund manager co-founded by Tory MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, is to wind down after large client redemptions made the business unsustainable.

 

Lets hope Gbeebies can keep paying ....

[Saving For a Space Ship]

On 03/12/2023 at 18:15, regprentice said:

i said almost half , not half

40-43% of electricity is from fossil fuels, and the proportion of fossil fues in that mix is rising not falling - Renewable power made up 40% of Britain's electricity in 2022 - but fossil fuel share also rose. another 5% of energy is imported which also includes gas generation. 

fossil fuels also represent 75% of all energy use in the UK. 

I wonder if ev cars & bicycles charged from home & commercial building  sited Solar & windmills are in the figures, as they don't go into the grid? 

Not sure how accurate, but I asked google bard :- "what are the estimates for uk ev car & electric bicycle charging from solar panels and windmills installed in houses & commercial premises with powerwalls. what estimates is this of the total uk electric grid supply

Quote

Here is a table summarizing the estimates for UK EV and e-bike charging from solar panels and windmills installed in houses and commercial premises:

Electric Vehicle Charging	Estimated Capacity	Percentage of Total UK Electricity Demand
Solar panels	13.3 GW	15%
Windmills	6.5 GW	7%
Total	20 GW	22%

drive_spreadsheetExport to Sheets

Electric Bicycle Charging	Estimated Capacity	Percentage of Total UK Electricity Demand
Solar panels	3.8 GW	4%
Windmills	2.2 GW	2%
Total	6 GW	7%

 

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by Saving For a Space Ship

[regprentice]

1 hour ago, Saving For a Space Ship said:

I wonder if ev cars & bicycles charged from home & commercial building  sited Solar & windmills are in the figures, as they don't go into the grid? 

Not sure how accurate, but I asked google bard :- "what are the estimates for uk ev car & electric bicycle charging from solar panels and windmills installed in houses & commercial premises with powerwalls. what estimates is this of the total uk electric grid supply

 

 

it'll usually tell you what source its used and how its interpreted it if you ask it.

TBH google is so unreliable now for searching facts, figures or even recent news that i also use chatgpt (via the bing app) for this purpose. chat gpt4 is quite good at pointing out how its compiled numbers in the initial response. 

I wasnt aware powerwalls were popular in the UK. iirc i read an article that said EVs would all be scrapped at 7 years old and the batteries farmed for powerwalls (When the economic value of the batteries exceeded the market value if the car - assuming the UK car market continues to undervalue older cars)... but the article said we'd probably ship them to australia where powerwalls were much more common.

my gut feeling is powerwalls and windmills are less than 1% of that value. If bard said something different i wouldnt believe it til i understood the source. i've only seen a handful of private windmills and almost exclusively on farms. ive never seen or heard of anyone with a powerwall (though im sure some people do have them).

[kzb]

9 hours ago, Saving For a Space Ship said:

I wonder if ev cars & bicycles charged from home & commercial building  sited Solar & windmills are in the figures, as they don't go into the grid? 

Solar is estimated by Sheffield University.

https://www.solar.sheffield.ac.uk/pvlive/

Whether this includes domestic set-ups not connected to the grid, I don't know.

It says on the Gridwatch site that the lack of any identifiable dip in fossil fuel generation around midday could mean the Sheffield figures are overestimating solar power.

 

 

 

[shlomo]

TalkTalk has warned there are doubts over its future survival as the struggling broadband provider squeezes suppliers in the shadow of a looming cash crunch.

Bosses have warned there is “material uncertainty” ahead of a crucial debt refinancing that “may cast significant doubt” over its ability to continue.

TalkTalk is in the process of breaking up and selling off parts of its business as it grapples with a £1.1bn debt pile.

The recent rise in interest rates mean the company is bracing for a sharp increase in its borrowing costs when it refinances these debts early next year.

The company warned that if it has not secured refinancing by August 2024 it will be at risk of breaching its debt covenants.

 

TalkTalk burnt through a further £81m in the first half of the year, while its net debt stood at £973m excluding leases.

Finance costs also jumped almost 40pc to £65m from £47m in 2022 amid rising interest rates, according to company accounts seen by The Telegraph.

TalkTalk has extended its credit terms with some suppliers to as much as 300 days as it tries to shore up its cash reserves.

Suppliers subject to delayed payments include The&Partnership, the advertising agency founded by Johnny Hornby.

Mr Hornby, who also co-founded the Hawkstone beer brand with Jeremy Clarkson, has a long-running relationship with TalkTalk boss Sir Charles Dunstone after securing Carphone Warehouse as his first client.

TalkTalk and Mr Hornby said their extended credit terms had been in place for several years.

But other companies in the marketing sector are understood to be affected and industry sources said a number of suppliers had raised concerns about the delayed payments in recent weeks.

TalkTalk has also made use of supply chain financing, which allows suppliers to obtain earlier payments via the company’s bank. The total amount owed to suppliers stood at £590m at the end of August.

 

The cash crunch at TalkTalk, which was taken private by Toscafund in 2020, has forced bosses to pursue a break-up of the group.

In October, the company agreed to sell its business division to its own shareholders for £95m after it failed to find a third-party buyer.

TalkTalk is also understood to have received offers for a stake in its wholesale operations from infrastructure funds including Florida-based DigitalBridge. 

The wholesale division is thought to be valued at around £1.5bn, meaning bosses could raise several hundred million pounds from the sale of a minority stake, which would be crucial for the looming refinancing.

However, analysts have cast doubts over the value of the division as its main revenue source comes from TalkTalk’s own retail business, which shed 100,000 customers in the first quarter alone.

James Ratzer, an analyst at New Street Research, said TalkTalk was facing a “binary outcome” from the sale.

He said: “If they can sell a stake in [the wholesale platform] then there’s a clear path to refinancing. 

“But if bidders walk away it will come down to whether shareholders want to put money in.”

TalkTalk’s revenues edged up 3pc to £748m in the first half of the year as price rises offset customer losses, but losses more than tripled to £44m as inflation and rising interest rates pushed up costs.

A spokesman for TalkTalk declined to comment

[msi]

Smile Direct Club dentistry aligners firm shuts down

Couldn't fill the gap in the market?

[Saving For a Space Ship]

On 07/12/2023 at 18:04, regprentice said:

it'll usually tell you what source its used and how its interpreted it if you ask it.

TBH google is so unreliable now for searching facts, figures or even recent news that i also use chatgpt (via the bing app) for this purpose. chat gpt4 is quite good at pointing out how its compiled numbers in the initial response. 

I wasnt aware powerwalls were popular in the UK. iirc i read an article that said EVs would all be scrapped at 7 years old and the batteries farmed for powerwalls (When the economic value of the batteries exceeded the market value if the car - assuming the UK car market continues to undervalue older cars)... but the article said we'd probably ship them to australia where powerwalls were much more common.

my gut feeling is powerwalls and windmills are less than 1% of that value. If bard said something different i wouldnt believe it til i understood the source. i've only seen a handful of private windmills and almost exclusively on farms. ive never seen or heard of anyone with a powerwall (though im sure some people do have them).

cheers for that.

I did hear a reliable anecdote about a person who set up a ev battery recycling co and was finding it very difficult to get enough supply as batts are lasting a lot longer than originally thought 

[Maghull Mike]

https://nitter.net/buccocapital/status/1733840703573156197#m

[Blobsy]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67680748

Customers left with orders that needed filling.

Somebody needs to drill down into the accounts.

[Bear Necessities]

"TalkTalk has warned there are doubts over its future survival"

Well that's some good news!

We are with TalkTalk. They ballsed up our switch from BT so majorly that it took months for our fibre to be reconnected, and almost daily phone calls.  We ended up getting paid so much statutory compensation from them for lack of service that we had free 500Mb fibre for over a year.

I would have left them by now were it not for my fear of the next switch going as badly.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Bear Necessities

[msi]

Bankruptcies soar as high rates and end of Covid aid hit businesses hard

Corporate bankruptcies are increasing at double-digit rates in most advanced economies as borrowing costs rise and governments unwind pandemic-era measures to support business worth trillions of dollars.

 

The New Normal bites...

[Sn50 Coif]

2 hours ago, msi said:

Bankruptcies soar as high rates and end of Covid aid hit businesses hard

Corporate bankruptcies are increasing at double-digit rates in most advanced economies as borrowing costs rise and governments unwind pandemic-era measures to support business worth trillions of dollars.

 

The New Normal bites...

Any way to read this without paying £59 per month? Got to watch the bottom line!

[Fishfinger]

On 10/12/2023 at 20:00, msi said:

Smile Direct Club dentistry aligners firm shuts down

Couldn't fill the gap in the market?

They couldn't get the bridging loan.... Better brace ourselves for more bad news.

[Staffsknot]

On 12/7/2023 at 11:02 AM, msi said:

Somerset Capital Management to wind down after client losses

Somerset Capital Management, the boutique fund manager co-founded by Tory MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, is to wind down after large client redemptions made the business unsustainable.

 

Lets hope Gbeebies can keep paying ....

I read this while I was abroad, got to say his campaigning for Brexit to enable his tax avoidance has sectacularly blown up in his face, bet nanny is consoling him

[Staffsknot]

6 hours ago, msi said:

Bankruptcies soar as high rates and end of Covid aid hit businesses hard

Corporate bankruptcies are increasing at double-digit rates in most advanced economies as borrowing costs rise and governments unwind pandemic-era measures to support business worth trillions of dollars.

 

The New Normal bites...

Sadly a lot of companies took pandemic money or post pandemic bounce as 'new normal' and burnt through everything. There's nowt for the real new normal of high rates they believed would never come

[msi]

1 hour ago, Fishfinger said:

They couldn't get the bridging loan.... Better brace ourselves for more bad news.

Let's hope nothing was crooked

[shlomo]

5 hours ago, Sn50 Coif said:

Any way to read this without paying £59 per month? Got to watch the bottom line!

https://archive.ph/xmJNn

[Maghull Mike]

https://nitter.net/RnaudBertrand/status/1736762863514223026#m

The EEC will become the ECCP, once the collaspe comes they want to shut Elon down

Mike

[msi]

3 hours ago, Maghull Mike said:

https://nitter.net/RnaudBertrand/status/1736762863514223026#m

The EEC will become the ECCP, once the collaspe comes they want to shut Elon down

Mike

Yawn.  Butt hurt they are after 'your' fReEdOm Fanboi?  

I'd put money that tw*tter/X collapses before the EU does...

[Staffsknot]

11 minutes ago, msi said:

Yawn.  Butt hurt they are after 'your' fReEdOm Fanboi?  

I'd put money that tw*tter/X collapses before the EU does...

Musk - I will comply with EU rulings

Doesn't

Start of enforcement proceedings

Apparently that is Musk standing up to the EU and crushing it FFS, really the fantasy levels

[Orb]

I work in the transport industry. Things this Christmas have felt much quieter than previous years. 

Just this week 2 more established haulage firms have gone bust, citing tough economic conditions. 

 

Bomford Haulage, Harleston Norfolk (40 years)

https://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/news/24004902.haulage-bomfords-group-harleston-enters-administration/

 

WH Barley, Milton Keynes (over 50 years)

https://motortransport.co.uk/operator-news/w-h-barley-enters-administration/17692.article

 

I work for a very healthy well established company, and even I've begun seeing signs that a cull of drivers is on the cards in Jan. I can see more transport firms collapsing. We've had some big names go under this year.

Kenyon Haulage of Blackburn went in March after 90 years of trading. Knights of Old went in September after 158 years trading. These to me are not insignificant.