More evidence of the incompetence and corruption of the UK government’s “renewable energy” strategy – “The climate scaremongers: Cheap wind power myth is blown away”
From here:
The climate scaremongers: Cheap wind power myth is blown away - The Conservative Woman
The numbers behind the wind power component of the “renewables” energy strategy - used to virtue signal the meeting of 2030 and 2040 UN Sustainable Development Goals – continue to be revealed for what they are. Ill-conceived, poorly thought out and a scam perpetrated on tax payers via the siphoning of funds to corporate interests and the cause of massive increases in electricity bills hurting every single person of all ages in the UK.
A disgrace suffered by the whole country, inflicted by moronically stupid and sanctimonious politicians who now struggle with the hubris of their decades long ignorance of science, economics and plain common sense.
It is now obvious, even if it wasn’t before, that the only reason wind power was ever “viable” was because of massive subsidies from tax-payers. The same tax-payers that provided the subsidies are now paying massively inflated energy bills in a straight “lose-lose” situation.
Remember, everything that is being revealed in the UK, applies across the EU and every other country that pursues these sorts of “green” policies – Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Russia – every country.
From the linked article:
“THE myth that our energy bills would come tumbling down thanks to the abundance of cheap offshore wind power has finally been blown to smithereens by the failure of the latest auction for the Contracts for Difference subsidy scheme to attract any bidders.”
In my day, Contracts for Differences (CFD’s) were used in financial markets and were agreements to do something for a set period, starting at some point in the future. Usually it would be a 3’s 6’s type of contract that would lock a borrowing or investment interest rate for 3 months, starting in 3 months time. You would “settle” the difference between the rate for 3 month in 3 months time by referring to the official 11 am price on that date 3 months from today. I presume it works the same in any market, not just interest rates.
A failure to “attract any bidders” means the market has ceased to operate – it is kaput, defunct, not a market.
“For years we have been promised that ultra-cheap wind power was just around the corner. In 2020 Dr Malte Jansen of the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London claimed: ‘Offshore wind power will soon be so cheap to produce that it will undercut fossil-fuelled power stations and may be the cheapest form of energy for the UK.’ Last year the Guardian bragged that the cost of offshore wind had fallen yet again, to just £37/MWh.”
Bragged at a time when those experts knew of the massive subsidies – laundered via a fake CFD market with prices rigged by the government.
“All these claims, of course, derived from the annual auctions for the Contracts for Difference subsidy scheme. What the cheerleaders had not realised was that the wind farms were under no legal obligation to honour these contracts. Instead those companies which bid low are now selling at the much higher market price.”
Now that is shocking. “.. the wind farms were under no legal obligation to honour these contracts”. I find this astonishing. You promise to “deal” at a price in the future, you have a legally binding contract. What moron wrote a clause in the CFD contracts that one side could simply walk a way? That is not a market or an auction, that is fraud.
“In this latest auction round, however, this loophole was removed, and bidders would have been forced to honour their contracts. As a result, they have pulled out of the auction, and are now demanding much bigger subsidies.”
Oh, so not fraud – “a loophole”. Otherwise the departments that created the fraud would be liable – again a “lose-lose” situation for the people of the UK. The only people they can sue for damages for fraud are themselves. Such is the power of government – all care and no responsibility.
It gets worse.
“There never was any evidence that the true cost of offshore wind was as low as the auction prices suggested. Independent analysis has long concluded that the real cost is between £80 and £100/MWh, and this does not take account of the wider system costs of integrating intermittent wind power, maybe as much as another £50/MWh. Gas-fired power is currently about £80/MWh.”
“In stark contrast to the promises of the renewable lobby, subsidies for offshore wind are expected to add nearly £5billion to our energy bills this year.”
And because they cannot operate profitably, the wind power companies want even bigger subsidies.
Got that? Gas-fired power is £80/MWh, compared to £150 total for wind-blown power. But that’s not all. Another factor ignored in all the analysis is the need to rip up perfectly good gas lines.
“This week the Daily Telegraph reported that it could cost £65billion to decommission Britain’s gas grid, a 176,000-mile network of buried pipes. This is according to a draft National Infrastructure Report. It says that unused pipes must be removed or they risk decay and experts fear the potential collapse of roads. At the moment the network is properly maintained, with the cost included in our gas bills.”
65 billion pounds to rip up perfectly fine pipes providing perfectly good gas that has no meaningful impact on the climate, despite the “cheep, cheeping” of the chicken littles who can provide zero evidence of such a claim.
There are around 28 million households in the UK. Just the cost of ripping up gas lines works out at over £2,300 per household. Those gas lines were installed over decades and caused massive delays in travel, lots of dust particle pollutants in the air and their removal will result in the same massive inconvenience, stress and frustration. Inflation will, of course, cause that estimate of 65 billion pounds to escalate quickly to over 100 billion pounds in just a few years.
These issues of corruption, incompetence and virtue signalling BS are headed for the US, the impact is likely to be just as significant.
There are other issues, such as the “boiler tax” (h/t Iain) that requires heat pumps to be installed on a rising quota basis (percentage of heat pumps sold per boiler) from 2% this year, rising to 25% of sales by 2028 and get fined £5,000 for every heat pump that they does not meet the quota of percentage of sales.
For a bit more context, don’t forget this:
“.. current household prices for UK electricity are around 31 pence per kWh (up 50% over the last two years) and for UK natural gas they are around 7.5 pence per kWh – also up around 50% in the last two years. This compares to the current US electricity price of around 16 cents.”
“.. green energy costs FOUR TIMES more than hydrocarbon energy. That extra cost hits the poorest the hardest and places them at risk of making bad choices. Heat or food as well as slightly more discretionary items like taking out insurance, paying off credit, going for a beer or a holiday, or clothes and so on.”
And that is with the massive subsidies to “renewables” and massive tax and restrictive legislative burden of hydrocarbons today. A burden that is going to increase now that subsidies have been removed.
One would expect that the same shenanigans are pervasive for solar power as well.
All coming to the USA and embedded in the monster Inflation Reduction Act.
And just in case you thought that the British voter, doing the usual and voting OUT the government, rather than voting IN, the soon to be Labour party is far worse than the morons in the ruling Tory party. Imagine a seething mass of AOC’s looking to eliminate cow farts and you will have some idea of just how stupid the Labour party is. London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, and his Ultra Low Emission Zone and Congestion Charge are the gold standard for Labour.
Onwards!
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It is easy to tell a scam. When the gov tells you to trust them and things will be much better and cheaper if we FORCE this on you, you know it is a lie. You know that because if it really was better and cheaper, there would be no reason to FORCE anything, it would happen automatically. People would voluntarily be jumping on board without coercion. Who doesn't want better and cheaper? The only thing "green" in green energy is the money being stolen from taxpayers.