(1) From Sunday Express, October 15, 2014:
The green crusade of successive governments is set to double electricity bills for households and cost homes £26 billion a year by 2030, it was claimed yesterday.
"The cost of renewable energy and carbon taxes will put an
extra £983 a year on household bills by then, compared to relying on a mix of
nuclear and new gas-fired power stations, three experts told a Lords committee.
They also said the “foolhardy” green policy will do
little to cut emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
The Scientific Alliance report highlights warnings by the
regulator Ofgem that the margin for electricityproduction for the 2015-16
winter will be at an all-time low of 2 per cent compared to the
pre-privatisation requirement of at least 20 per cent.
It means that in times of high demand, such as during
very cold weather, Britain would be at risk of power cuts."
The alliance argues that wind power – which is the main
renewable energy source depended on by Government – is unreliable.
The subsidy change will also save up to £2 million
of taxpayers’ money each year that won’t be available for these subsidies. The
reform follows other government measures designed to end support for solar
farms in agricultural fields. The Department for Energy and Climate Change
recently announced that renewable energy subsidies for new large-scale solar
farms will end next April....
The changes the government is making are expected to slow
down the growth of solar farms in the countryside in England. There are
currently 250 installed, with the biggest covering as much as 100 hectares.
Under previous plans, the number of fields dedicated to solar farms was set to
increase rapidly, with over 1,000 ground-based solar farms expected by the end
of the decade across the UK.
Our power stations are ageing fast. We have eked
out their lifespan for longer than expected, but replacements are urgently needed. Yet for years, our politicians have failed to act, promoting costly and
over-subsidised renewables rather than building new gas or nuclear plants. To
make matters worse, much of our capacity has been scrapped, in compliance with
environmental restrictions set in Brussels.
If things continue as they are, the prospect has been
raised of Seventies-style restrictions on energy use, even rolling blackouts.
That is a grim prospect for a 21st-century economy....
Former Environment Secretary said support for
flawed wind and solar power cost billions and made electricity and gas
needlessly expensive.
He called on Whitehall to was to scrap the Climate Change
Act.
He warned claims of impending environmental disaster were
'exaggerated'.
In a shocking assessment, National Grid last week said
that Britain’s cushion of spare generating capacity had sunk to just 4pc, down
from 17pc three years ago and its lowest level in five years. And that’s
despite a series of emergency measures, including incentives to business to use
less power, to deal with the looming blackout problem.
That a country of Britain’s size, status and relative
prosperity is running such risks is a quite shocking state of affairs. There is
admittedly some justification in Mr Davey’s excuse – that this is largely the
fault of the last lot, and particularly the disastrously inadequate and
idealistically minded energy policy run by our now friendless Labour leader, Ed
Miliband. Replacement, base load generating capacity takes a long time to
build, and it should have begun a long time ago.
(6) From The Telegraph, October 5, 2014:
Green taxes on energy are undermining British
businesses by imposing costs which are not faced by international competitors,
Vince Cable has said.
The Business Secretary admitted that a compensation
scheme for heavy industry introduced by the government in 2011 is failing to
"go the whole hog" and redress the balance. He said that British
firms are "struggling" to compete with their international rivals on
price, which is leading to work going abroad.
"Many of our manufacturing companies and exporters –
particularly in areas like steel and cement and others which consume lots of
electricity – are struggling against international competition because of the
cost of energy.
"They will argue that because we are trying to be
green we are imposing costs on them which their competitors don't have.
The Germans, the British, "they are prepared to make
sacrifices to address", including suffering some health and overall
diswelfare.
(7) From the International Business Times, November 6, 2014:
More than 15 million UK households plan to ration their energy use this winter to cope with "sky-high" energy costs, according to uSwitch.
More than 15 million UK households plan to ration their energy use this winter to cope with "sky-high" energy costs, according to uSwitch.
The price comparison website, which surveyed 5,300
people, found that almost six in ten (57%) people have already cut back or plan
to ration theirenergy use this winter in a bid to reduce bills.
The research also revealed that more than a third of
people (36%) who rationed their energy last winter said it affected their
health and wellbeing.
"In this day and age it's shocking to see so many
being forced to go without heating and risk their health, simply to cope with
high energy bills," said Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at
uSwitch.
(8) From The Times UK, November 21, 2014:
--------------
Subsidies that will cost households £14 a year and
hand energy companies windfall profits to keep the lights on will be
“challenging to defend politically”, a credit rating agency has said.
Companies will receive the payments to stop them closing
power stations, even though in many cases they would remain open anyway.
Moody’s suggested that politicians could scrap the
capacity market subsidy scheme if there is another backlash against green
energy levies.
The agency said in a report: “While for a few plants, the
capacity market may make thedifference between closing and staying open, the
concept and cost of paying many other already economic plants even when they
are not running may be challenging to defend politically in the context of the
recent debate around the affordability of energy bills.”
(9) From CityAM, November 20, 2014
By promoting
expensive forms of electricity – and discouraging cheaper forms, as the World
Bank has done by, for example, refusing to finance coal-fired power plants –
the West is burdening poor countries with the most expensive ways of generating
power. The growing fleet of renewables in Europe, particularly in Germany and
the UK, is leading to an increase in fuel poverty. Such an approach would be
even more damaging in poor nations, which desperately need cheap and reliable
energy and growth to alleviate poverty.
The UK and other
rich nations should no longer fund decarbonisation in the developing world. In
the short to medium term, developing countries need access to plentiful, cheap
and reliable electricity. In any case, promoting renewables in the developing
world is not an answer to dealing with the effects of the climate system.
Energy Econ 25: Coal Use and GDP Expansion, Is There a Correlation?, September 01, 2014
Energy Econ 26: Dealing with Power Deficit in 2015, September 19, 2014
Energy Econ 27: Expensive Electricity, FIT and Europe's Renewables, October 09, 2014
Energy Econ 28: Germany's Renewables, Collapsing Windmills, October 22, 2014
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