Just signed it, thanks for starting it. As a UK resident (not yet citizen) what bothers me most about this place is the lack of any serious industrial policy to build future technology (be it space, AI, batteries, PV, Fusion etc.). Whoever invests will get the benefits. Right now thats not us.

That’s good news. I imagine the added capacity mix is also a good indicator of where the workforce is going and where experience is built up. It might be more and more expensive to do non-renewables simply because industry experience on how to do it is reduced.

They did good expectation management ahead of the flight saying it‘s to gather data and Spectrum might blow up. We have to keep educating people. Imagine your science experiment in the laboratry working the first time around.
better to have a rocket exploding than not having a rocket launch at all.

I remember spending days in the cafes in Ljubljana near the river while on Interrail back in 2010. The city had such a relaxed but lively vibe.
Great to see approval has only gone up over the years.

This statistic feels right. I am cycling every day in SE London and every year I have been seeing more cyclists. A long way to go but cycling is becoming much easier in many parts in London.

UPDATE: Commercial company Intuitive Machines has put its second probe on the moon, but it was not immediately clear if the vehicle was upright and fully functioning.

I like this take. I wonder if some operators in the UK would already consider ways to make use of excessive energy (battery storage, power-to-gas etc.)

I think this should be seen as a success of decades of green power advocacy. We need the broadest possible adoption of renewables. To me it just shows how good a solution wind & pv has become.

Guter Artikel; die Industrie hat die 2010er Jahre verschlafen. Ich erinnere mich an all die negativen Aussagen der deutschen Autobauer zu EVs in der Zeit, als Tesla zwar noch viel kleiner war aber bereits das Potential klar wurde. Oft hat man damals in D sogar noch über Wasserstoff gesprochen.

Yes it‘s disconcerting to zoom out and realize that 80% of energy is still largely untouched by the renewables roll out.
Do you know how much efficiency gains by electrification (evs, heat pumps,..) of transport & heating could reduce this primary energy demand?

Agreed. Big plus I´d see is also space. Grid-scale PV (even rooftop solar tbh) still faces so many uphill battles due to zoning / land use it´s frustrating. Moving it to space and assuming ground station have reasonable footprint/throughput & maybe far from population centers could ease it.

Yeah that would be such a powerful demonstration. Making a cuppa powered by that system would surely go instantly viral and unlock much more funding from the UK 😄

Interesting! Would you envision a small (but importantly still end-to-end, in-orbit) demonstrator mission? I.e. something at the few kWh level you could launch in one go?
Or would you hit limits with the system (e.g. transmission)?

I can see the struggle to raise funding here, it does sound like proper sci-fi (which is def. a reason to work on it!), so many investors might not be familiar with it / I assume you have to do a lot of educating.