11 June

‘Base load’ power does NOT mean ‘a base amount of energy needed to keep society running’. That’s politicians using slogans to change the facts. Base load power is the amount of power we all need to USE, to prevent having to turn coal-fired power plants off overnight. It’s very expensive and damaging to have to stop and start them regularly. ‘Base load power’ is a measure of how inflexible coal-fired power stations are, it has nothing to do with how much energy society needs at all.