Introduction
This week’s post is just a simple thank you to my subscribers. During the past week Eigen Values passed the 1,000 subscribers barrier. I never would have guessed I would get to that level when I started back in January. I initially thought I would write about a variety of topics, but most of what I have written is about energy. It has turned out that, once you dig into it, there’s so much wrong with current energy policy it could keep me going for years. And it seems there’s a growing audience for content that challenges the prevailing narrative about “cheap” renewables and Net Zero policies.
However, I do hope to branch out into other areas at some point. For instance, the relatively poor performance of the UK on health outcomes, despite having the “envy of the world” NHS is an enduring mystery to me. I am also concerned about and interested in the rise of censorship and the seemingly never-ending trend of technology towards centralisation and control instead of decentralisation and enablement. But they are topics for another time.
Subscriber Growth
To illustrate the growing audience for long-form analysis of energy policy, I thought it would be helpful to share my subscriber numbers.
As you can see, my first ever post generated a couple of hundred new subscribers right from the beginning. I am grateful to
for sharing that first article about the hidden costs of renewables. It certainly got me off to a good start and subscriber numbers have been growing steadily ever since.Even though generating income is not the primary driver to do this work - I view it more as a public service - I am particularly grateful to my paid subscribers. It certainly helps to know that some people value my content highly enough to pay for it.
Most Popular Articles
It is interesting to go through the Top-5 most popular articles based on the number of views recorded on the Substack platform. If you are a relatively new subscriber you might like to take a look at the ones you have not read already.
In number 5 spot with 3.97k views is the article about Why EROEI Matters that explained the concept Energy Return on Energy Invested, why it is important and why the National Grid ESO’s obsession with renewables is leading us along the road to serfdom.
The 4th most popular article is Criminalising Net Zero Disobedience with 4.14k views that covered the totalitarian measures to criminalise non-compliance with Energy Performance regulations and centrally control our domestic appliances.
Second and third places are very close. But the third most read article with 4.40k views is The Pillars Supporting Net Zero are Crumbling. This article went through the evidence that needs to be presented to support the “climate emergency” narrative and Net Zero policies and found it lacking.
The number 2 article with 4.43k views is Political Support for Net Zero is Cracking that set out the growing numbers of politicians starting to question the agenda. This was quite prescient given the recent announcements from Rishi Sunak.
Surprisingly, in the top spot with 6.12k views is my very first article: Exposing the Hidden Cost of Renewables that went through the rising costs of subsidies and grid balancing. It seems this article has found enduring support. I plan to publish an updated version later in the year when all the new data is available.
Surprisingly Unpopular Articles
There’s a couple of articles that I thought were important when I was researching and writing them, but have not generated as much interest as I thought they might.
My second ever article looked at the UK Productivity Puzzle and how Net Zero policies have caused the high energy costs that have driven out highly productive, energy intensive industries as low-productivity sectors have grown much more quickly.
And the other post that I thought would generate more interest was this one looking at what the various authorities want to foist upon us as part of their Net Zero agenda.
Building the Network
Substack have launched a new feature called “Referrals” to grow subscribers, so I thought I would experiment with it. It is designed to reward existing subscribers for referring new members. However, I do not intend ever to make this publication paid only - my intention is to keep the content free to view so as many people as possible can see what the various authorities are up to. The rewards tend to be complimentary access to the Substack for various durations depending upon how many new subscribers you generate. Notwithstanding that, I plan to offer one month’s complimentary subscriptions for 3 referrals, three months for 5 referrals and one year for 20 referrals.
How to participate
1. Share Eigen Values. When you use the referral link below, or the “Share” button on any post, you'll get credit for any new subscribers. Simply send the link in a text, email, or share it on social media with friends.
2. Earn benefits. When more friends use your referral link to subscribe (free or paid), you’ll receive special benefits.
Get a 1 month comp for 3 referrals
Get a 3 month comp for 5 referrals
Get a 12 month comp for 20 referrals
To learn more, check out Substack’s FAQ.
Thank you for helping get the word out about Eigen Values!
What’s Next
I am working on a critique of the recent Royal Society report on large-scale energy storage that should be published soon. Other ideas I have are to cover what appears to be the emerging nuclear renaissance and another looking at the donations being made to “green” politicians in the Commons and the Lords.
If you have any subjects that you would like covered, please let me know in the comments.
If you have enjoyed reading Eigen Values, then please share with your family, friends and colleagues and invite them to sign up too.
Congratulations, well deserved and wishing you many, many more.
You may find my comments on Francis Menton's article on the Royal Society at WUWT useful in your research. It's important to dig into the papers in the supplementary annexes to understand what they have done. Basically, most of their assumptions are FES/CCC Hopium. All they have done is to temper that with long term MERRA 2 based weather reanalysis. Something I already did several years ago, with rather better other assumptions.
It is at least a start, because the need for storage and surplus curtailed generation in a long term framework had been completely ignored by all the previous FES and Carbon Budget work. But assuming that energy demand can be cut to less than a third of the 200mtoe/2400TWh that we used at our peak, and then have extensive demand rationing applied to get through difficult times while offshore wind averages a Betz limit busting 63% capacity factor and we find space for 150GW of solar and developing storage capacity equal to roughly half the total methane storage in Europe seems well into the realm of fairy tales to me.