Cooking up "net zero"

or "what will happen when the power fails?"

We had a power failure this morning. Fortunately it was only out for a couple of hours. There is definitely something to be said for being on the same section of the grid as a hospital. They tend to get to it quickly. 

Still, I had three text messages on the mobile telling me that the power was out (as if I did not know) and would be back on at 3pm, at noon, at 2pm. It actually came on a short time ago - around 9am - and I have since caught up with the worst of the email.

But, prior to that I prowled out to the kitchen and had breakfast. I could make tea, as much tea as I wanted. As I was boiling water in the kettle over the gas flame I thought again of how sensible my mother was when she insisted that the house be connected to the gas as well as the electricity. Her reasoning was, "There will always be a way to heat something."

My mother did not drink tea - or even much coffee - but she knew other people did. She also knew that hot water can be used for essential first aid. You can also supply people with hot food using gas. Yes, it can be done with electricity too but if the electricity fails then the gas might well be there instead. (I am ignoring open wood fires. Most people have no such thing.)

But gas is now seen as "evil". It adds to "global warming". New houses will no longer be permitted to have connections to gas supplies. If the power goes out then the power goes out. There can be no cups of tea, no hot water to fill an old-fashioned hot water bottle to keep someone warm, no hot water to clean a wound, no way to heat food or gas for any other purpose. Eventually restaurants will not be able to use it. The local fish and chip shop will not be able to use it. We will use "renewables" for our power supply instead. 

Really? These renewables are already taking up large areas of prime agricultural land and reducing our capacity to rely on home grown food. They had to halt the wind turbines yesterday because the weather was so wild. There was daylight but it was not actually very sunny so I don't know how well the solar panels were doing. I could tell the difference in the temperature of the hot water here - which is heated by solar panels with an electrical backup.  

Do we need to think about all this some more or are we going to be reduced to food that does not need cooking and no tea? I know that's an exaggerated idea - but it is still worth thinking about.