Wednesday 5 August 2020

The Troughers Never Go Away

We had decades of being stuffed by nationalised energy companies; then another decade when Ofgem was awarding subsidies to renewable energy projects on a non competitive basis.  The moment developers were made to compete for limited funds, the "costs" plummeted!   A miracle.  Glory Be!

But now the great green "economic revovery" bandwagon is REALLY gaining momentum, and lo! - here's Scottish Power.
In previous auctions the government has capped the amount of renewable energy that can win a subsidy contract, which is paid for through energy bills, to encourage developers to lower their costs. Keith Anderson, Scottish Power’s chief executive, said there was “minimal risk” to household energy bills [if the cap were to be removed] because the cost of sea-based turbines is so low the projects may even help to make Britain’s energy cheaper. “At this stage you are guaranteed fantastic value for money. And what do you gain? A huge wave of investment into the UK supply chain companies and a major boost to the economy,” he said ... “Why constrain investment when we could be making the most of what we’ve got to grow the renewables sector?” Anderson said. “We know that we need more renewables, let’s just get the hell on with it.”
Yeah, yeah.  Suddenly it would turn out that those low bids for subsidies last time around were before a big surge in demand for turbines took place; oh, and all the good sites ahve already been taken.  So, sadly, Minister, I'm afraid it's all a bit more "costly" this time.

Bloody troughers.  If the government gives them an inch I shall be sore displeased.  But not, I fear, surprised.  Has Boris ever turned down a building proposal put before him, as Mayor or PM?  It's not his style.  Some truly epic "waste" is about to be perpetrated and I am simply glad that the utterly ridiculous Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon has, at least for now, been resolutely seen off by several ministers in a row.  The trougher behind that one hasn't give up, however - so let's see.

ND

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

They won't just be given an inch but several square miles...

Whatever the auction price finalises at, I'm sure they'll find away to end up paying double at least.

Elby the Beserk said...

"Bloody troughers. If the government gives them an inch I shall be sore displeased."

Of course they will. And they'll go for full EV and NetZero, both of which will themselves engender (are we allowed to say that?) SO much pollution as every ounce of every heavy metal on the planet will nowhere near suffice to fuel the insanity of both these projects.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/04/the-dirty-secrets-of-clean-electric-vehicles/

https://notrickszone.com/2020/06/01/renewable-energy-threatens-thousands-of-globally-important-biodiversity-areas-and-its-worsening/

https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2020/02/KellyNetZero-2.pdf

https://stopthesethings.com/2017/08/10/wind-industrys-dirty-little-secret-turbines-to-generate-40-million-tonnes-of-toxic-waste/

https://www.manhattan-institute.org/mines-minerals-and-green-energy-reality-check

http://documemnts.worldbank.org/curated/en/2073715003864587722/the-growing-role-of-minerals-and-metals-for-a-low-carbon-future

https://www.cfact.org/2019/09/15/the-solar-panel-toxic-waste-problem/

and so on. The plan is to heal the earth by destroying it. I have no doubt Boris will sign up to both and that many many Tory voters will not vote foR him again. All the more so if he bows to woke.

https://www.thegwpf.com/britains-electric-car-strategy-is-doomed-to-failure/

And this is a belter

https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/207371500386458722/the-growing-role-of-minerals-and-metals-for-a-low-carbon-future

A commentary on the above notes...

"In 2017, the World Bank released a little-noticed report that models the increase in material extraction that would be required to produce an annual output of 7 terawatts of electricity by 2050. That's enough to power roughly half od the global economy.

By doubling the World Bank figures, we can estimate what it will take to get all the way to zero emissions - and the results are staggering :
34 million metric tons of copper
40 million tons of lead
50 million tons of zinc
162 million tons of aluminium
4.8 BILLION tons of iron.

Not to mention the Lithium needed for batteries."

So - to heal the world from CO2 we will have to destroy it.

I'm thinking of becoming a hermit. Sick of all the nonsense in the air.

Anonymous said...

SP is Iberdrola. So any subsidy would be for the benefit of shareholders offshore.

Is transferring vast amounts of public money to non-UK companies a good idea ... or just par for the course.