Competition

This splendid building is home to around 1 to 1.5 million bees, at least in summer and probably the nearest active hives to our house. It is on a small stand alone allotment type spot, the bees belonging to someone in Ottobeuren who we occasionally see when walking/riding by. It is very close to the site of a planned large flood water dam and I think he has been told he will have to give it up. As he is no longer the youngest, I doubt he will relocate but probably give up, a great shame for the environment.

Talking of which and seeing the solar cell on the building - while Bliping this evening had Sky News on in the background and a report about the UK energy price rises and the Chinese being asked to build/run a new Hinkley Point atomic reactor. Please, please rethink. Germany has the same problems with energy costs. We face a big rise in 2014 although the cost of electricity from the power stations is at it's lowest! And that is after Germany shut down half of it's reactors overnight in 2011 and now only has 8 which will all be shut down by 2022. We are producing so much electricity from renewables that we have to sell it at a massive discount to Austria. The high prices for us as consumers is due to the subsidies paid to the people producing renewable energy. They are guaranteed a price and the cheaper electricity is on the open market, the higher the subsidy. Not a pleasant situation but I for one would rather pay more and have it invested in renewables than in building new reactors. Technology will catch up and find a solution to the storage of renewable power. The subsidy system is not perfect but it has attracted a huge number of private persons to put the solar cells on their roofs. Is it worth having a Fukushima in the UK?