Battery-operated mains

China has some ...

Helpfully illustrated by scary pop-out picture of the project manager.

Well it is, I believe, just a local rag, where it seems a photo of a person is much more important than technical details :-)

Besides, any technical stuff would likely be above the heads of most people in Northumberland...

(r&dfc)

This would really confuse my wife's family.

They used to ask

"Is it electric, or does it take batteries?"

They got very confused if I answered "Yes, and Yes".

Return of a 19th century idea with modern components. Many of the early localised DC power stations had a battery bank to keep the lights on so they didn't have to employ an excess of staff like stokers to keep plant running at night. larger plants that provided power for tramways sometimes used storage batteries to help cope with demand at busy periods such as the morning and evening peaks or the crowds leaving a football ground.

G.Harman