Monday 1 April 2013

Fun Online Polls: Full English & Coal-fired power stations

There were 171 responses to last week's Fun Online Poll. Thanks to everybody who took part:

How do you like your Full English Breakfast? Choose max. one carbohydrate and one drink.

With toast - 108 votes
With chips - 7 votes
With waffles - 5 votes

With tea - 97 votes
With coffee - 48 votes
With other drink - 6 votes

Other preferences, please specify (i.e. mushrooms, Black Pudding etc.) - 57 votes
I don't like Full English Breakfast, full stop. - 14 votes


Of the 57 who voted "Other", about thirty people actually specified something. In descending order (if I've counted correctly):

Black pudding - 10 votes
Fried bread (apologies for missing this off the original list) - 10 votes
Mushrooms (the debate raged between 'field' and 'button') - 8 votes
Baked beans - five votes
Fried tomatoes - 6 votes
Kippers - 3 votes


I'd have thought that mushrooms, baked beans and fried tomatoes are part of the Full English, you'd expect at least one or two of them to be present, it doesn't really matter which. I'm not sure if they need an extra mention any more than 'slices of bacon' or 'sausages'.

We then descend into the long list of minority interest stuff with one or two votes each:

Saute potatoes
Bubble and squeak
Fried onions
White pudding
Haggis
Fruit slice
Cereal


So now we know!
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This week, three large coal-fired power stations shut down in the UK, see e.g. The Telegraph. Whether the EU's large Combustion Plant Directive was imposed on the large corporates running them, or whether those large corporates imposed the LCPD on us because it means they get even bigger handouts for doing something else instead remains to be seen.

Be that as it may, there are various different ways of estimating what percentage of the UK's total electricity generating capacity they represent. If I understand Ofgem's Electricity Capacity Assessment correctly, the total electricity generating capacity in the UK is about 80 GW and about 11 - 12 GW of coal and oil capacity is to be shut down by the end of 2015, including the big three power stations which have now shut down (4 GW or 5GW).

So that looks to me as if nearly 15% of the UK's capacity will be shut down in the next two years. Is this correct?

If anybody actually knows, please respond here.

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