The energy in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The energy in the UK - Essay Example In today’s modern industrialised world energy is almost as essential as basic necessities such as water. A very recent / current example of the importance of energy to our every day lives is the panic buying of fuel due to the closure of BP’s oil pipeline at The Grangemouth refinery in Scotland. It is being shutdown because of a workers strike. The refinery produces 10% of British petrol and diesel and also produces the steam required to power the neighbouring Kinneil that processes the crude oil from 70 offshore fields in the North Sea. British Energy state that; In the UK the major energy sources are coal, oil, gas, nuclear, hydro/other or imported sources. These sources are used either on their own as fuel for machinery and transport, or, to create electricity. The 2003 statistics on national consumption indicate that 46.5% of our energy consumption came from petroleum, 35% was natural gas and 17% was electricity. The diagram clearly shows that usage of coal in electrical power stations has almost halved in a 13 year period whereas the usage of gas has increased dramatically. This is a good indicator of how consumption patterns changed in general. Coal is a fossil fuel which is a finite source of energy. Shortages in coal reserves have forced the closing of many British mines. However, more significantly a moratorium on gas was lifted on gas which encouraged its usage at the expense of coal. Gas has been preferred over coal as it is viewed as being a â€Å"cleaner† fuel and it was also much cheaper than coal. Things are, however, beginning to change again. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has released statistics that indicate that although in 2005 deep mined coal output was down by 24% in comparison to output in 2004 and opencast output was down by 13%, overall, coal consumption was actually up by 2.3% to 61.8 million tonnes. In 2005 34% of all electricity