UK government using an inflated “carbon price” for its national energy strategy – probably the same tactic used by the Cult globally as part of the “renewables energy scam”

On 9 August 2023 I posted this article that grappled with the big numbers involved with the UK’s electricity supply in the context of Small Modular Reactors (SMR’s) providing a solution.

In the article, I hoped for a report by the UK’s Department of Energy – woops, the UK’s Department of Energy AND Net Zero.

Well here is a report from said Department.

Electricity Generation Costs 2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

A less clear and concise report, without a bunch of outrageous assumptions and accounting devices to provide clear guidance you coud not find.

Oh and guess what, not a mention of nuclear in electricity generation. Go figure. Perhaps even more incredible neither is oil, or hydro or geo-thermal - just solar, wind and gas.

In my 9 August 2023 article cited the cost of electricity from a US SMR manufacturer, NuScale Power, came in at $40/MWh to $65/MWh – call it £50/MWh. Lots of modules required for the whole of the UK of course. But saleable at that price.

From this article:

Analysts Claim UK Uses Inflated Carbon Price to Shape Energy Policy (theepochtimes.com)

Quite the row has broken out about price rigging in the assumptions used to justify solar and wind “renewables”. Leave aside the prospect of forests of windmills and fields of solar panels rotting away into tomorrows cankerous abandoned wastelands, let’s check out the Epoch Times (UK) article.

Hats off to the journalist – he managed to wade through the 12 foot deep BS and even get feedback from both sides!

“The UK government has been using a carbon price over three times higher than its present-day price, to shape projections for energy policy over the next two years, leading experts to question the strategy.”

Can you feel your heckles rise already?

“.. the document used a carbon price of just under £150 per tonne in its analysis. In comparison, UK carbon prices are currently at about £40 per tonne.”

How about those heckles now?

“According to the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, from 2025 wind farms are estimated to cost an average of £44 per megawatt hour (MWh) over the lifetime of the project, with “large-scale” solar costing £41 per MWh.”

Right, there’s a costing – just over £40 per MWh, compared to that US NuScale price of around £50 per MWh.

So, solar and wind are around 20% cheaper than nuclear from SMR’s!

Let’s go deeper and check out the “cloaking devices” used by the Department of Energy (and Net Zero).

“In contrast, using modelling based on the current UK ETS price, gas-fired generation projects commissioned in the same year would reach an estimated cost of £74 per MWh. According to the government’s inflated carbon cost price, that would be a far larger cost of £114 per MWh.”

Confused? You won’t be, tune in to next week’s episode or read the below!

What it seems to be saying is that because a carbon cost price of 150 per tonne is being used to compare electricity sourced from solar/wind/gas or whatever, and not the (inflated to 2025) current price of £74 – comparisons of solar and wind electricity generation to gas electricity generation – the Department is handing solar and wind a 50% unfair pricing advantage when it presents its comparisons.

Let me introduce one of the devices used to distort the entire energy supply pricing in the UK. It is called the Emissions Trading Scheme – aka yet another Cap and Trade scam. It started in the height of the pandemic in May 2021 (distracted much?) and will be revamped in 2024.

UK Emissions Trading Scheme | UK ETS | Frequently Asked Questions | FAQs (energyadvicehub.org)

“What is the UK Emissions Trading Scheme?

The UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a government-run scheme designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The government sets a maximum level for total emissions, and every unit of emissions up to this maximum is considered to be part of a system of tradable allowances.

This is also known as the “cap-and-trade” approach. In practice, a certain quantity of emissions is allowed before most sectors start paying for carbon, known as the free allocation.

These free allocations are intended to reduce over time as overall emissions from each sector are reduced.”

There is no reason for reduced emissions, maybe even better capture of toxic emissions and pollutants, but wholesale reductions? Ludicrous and idiotic.

The expression MYOB springs to mind, but the UK Government has now all but reversed all the moves to return nationalized assets to the private sector that Thatcher accomplished in the 1980’s by regulating the means of production instead. Modern socialism has replaced the “control of the means of production” with “regulate the means of production” – the net difference in outcome is zero. The UK is now a full blown socialist one party state. It can barely hold itself from ceding full control to a socialist United Nations.

“Industry analysts told the Financial Times that it appeared the government had effectively ignored the recent fall in carbon prices and had instead “drawn a straight line” from the UK Emissions Trading Scheme’s (ETS’s) all-time high of just under £100 a tonne last August to reach the near £150 assumption in 2025.”

Oh well, I am sure the intellectual class will pick over the carcass they have created.

My take on the bottom line?

Solar and Wind does not cost now and will not cost around £40/MWh in 2025 - they cost at least £80/MWh today will cost around £90 in 2025 – increasing by 10-15% per annum thereafter as the realization dawns that at least three times planned capacity is required.

Gas costs around £50/MWh because of the distortions of the ETS cap and trade BS. Maybe increasing 5-10% per annum.

Nuclear? Probably the same as gas, but increasing 0-5% per annum.

But then, I’m guessing and I have no track record – which doesn’t stack up against the guessers elsewhere and their HUGELY successful track records in setting energy strategy in the UK!!

“The previous raft of government contracts to renewables companies created a drop in UK carbon prices. That price now equates to a 45 percent discount, comparative to the EU emissions trading scheme.”

No mention of the impact on all those companies operating in the other energy sectors. Collateral damage right? The renewables sector is making out like bandits.

Who’d have thunk it! Government subsidies to one energy sector causing price collapses in other energy sectors. Defies all logic, right? Maybe my next door neighbour’s parrot is better than anyone – couldn’t be any worse!

Onwards

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