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| CERN - another huge user of electricity |
Soon - much sooner than anyone realises - one of the biggest issues we will face will be the price of electricity. If we are phasing out gas and oil-fired heating, the only power left is electricity - and hopefully that will be mainly produced by non-fossil-fuel means (I don't count uranium as a fossil fuel even if it is.... and I don't know where we will be with hydrogen).
Consequently, electricity is likely to become more expensive because it'll be in short supply and we will start differentiating between the uses to which it is put. Only today I heard a report that the mining of Bitcoin uses the same amount of electricity as all the wold's data centres combined and that the 'miners' of Bitcoin have set up in Iran where electricity is particularly cheap (as the Iranians can't sell their oil internationally). Should that activity be priced the same as heating and lighting homes, shops and offices?
It's likely that electricity pricing will need to be split into various levels depending on use. The 'base' price will be everyone's needs, such as heating and lighting and for powering things like washing machines and cookers, air-conditioning and the internet. And hospitals will need 'base' price electricity not only for heating and lighting but also to power sophisticated kit like MRI scanners. But it will quickly become apparent that heating one's swimming pool should not take place at the 'base' price, and hugely hungry industrial processes like making cement and desalinating water will have to bear a much higher price. Charging one's car should probably be priced closer to the price of petrol today - maybe half - to allow the government to raise tax / duty sufficient to offset the tax / duty they lose from the sale of petrol and diesel.. But vans, lorries and buses should be charged a lower rate of duty to allow business and mass transport to thrive.
