Another binge of overpriced, over-hyped and underwhelming power projects is about to be launched on hapless UK energy consumers. Part-time power generation rules.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27121801
‘The eight projects will all receive one of the government’s Contracts for Difference (CfDs), which effectively guarantee prices for renewable energy suppliers.’
‘These could cost up to £1bn each year in subsidies.’
Somehow these subsidies will cost bill payers ‘only’ 2% extra on their bills, claims Energy Secretary Ed Davey. The only other source of subsidy is the taxpayer, so you lose either way if you’re in the UK.
One small bit of relief though: ‘electricity producer Drax said it had started legal proceedings against the government over a decision not to support the conversion of one of its coal-burning units to biomass under the scheme.’
A chunk of forest somewhere in the States has been spared the axe, for now at least.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Watching politicians failing to grasp even the simplest reality of the climate issue is like watching a very very very slow crash. We know what is going to happen. The electorate will slap them in the face and vote for some other crowd. And when it does happen, they are all going to be shocked because all their old friends in the press have just kept saying the same old things about how they needed to act … and how were the politicians to know that no one listens to them on climate any longer?
And I will bet that climate is just one of dozens upon dozens of issues where the establishment politicians are gayley sauntering along oblivious to the changes in society as the “dinosaur” press are replaced by the internet, social media and blogs as the main sources forming people’s opinions (except the luddites in parliaments)
The Drax suit: somewhere “support” means a subsidy plan that has been reduced or eliminated.
If we knew which suit it was about, and the timing of the proposed conversion, we’d know something about the pull-back from current subsidies: not necessarily stopping them, but a substantial portion of the profit is going away.
[Reply] They wanted to convert 2 of 6 coal burners to wood pellets, but it’s been limited to 1.
Good on yer oldbrew, I nearly posted on this.
Have this material.
The nag’s press release
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-unveils-eight-major-new-renewables-projects-supporting-8500-green-jobs
Example of take by vested interest press
http://renews.biz/65296/cfd-to-kick-start-scottish-offshore/
Scottishsceptic says: ‘how were the politicians to know that no one listens to them on climate any longer?’
It’s amazing how badly informed they are. ‘Westminster bubble’ springs to mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Bubble
From inside the bubble Guido Fawkes reports:
‘Davey said today that the new contracts for renewable projects will support 8,500 green jobs. At £1.4 billion, that amounts to £167,000 per green job. Or green crap as the PM likes to call it.’
It would seem that not everything is rosy in the windfarm garden.
“Wind turbine availability is an important measure of performance that is very useful to operators, financiers and manufacturers when benchmarking the performance of operational turbines against other projects or against a wider peer group.
However, the on-going lack of clarity in the methodology of standardisation is leaving investors exposed to underperforming wind farms that cannot meet debt coverage obligations. Operators are therefore running wind farms at a loss or selling power at a reduced value and are taking a financial hit.”
My thoughts here.
Paul H: they are using the ‘contracts for difference’ system – does this affect your figures?
I’ve always understood why businesses like subsidies, they get money paid in to them by people who may never actually consume their product, plus MORE money from the ones who do.
Likewise politicians, if you are crafty you can make more in one election cycle than most people can make in a career.
Taxpayers I have never understood. The only logic that I can figure is if you expect to benefit from a great many other of your fellow taxpayers paying a lot more into YOUR left pocket than the government takes out of you right pocket in taxes – in other words a certain basic selfishness.
Corrupt business people you can [in principle] send to jail, corrupt politicians you can at least send to a golden retirement, but what do you do about your corrupt neighbors?
W^3
For a change, instead of Greenpeace, the BBC decided to ask “Friends of the Earth” for their opinion who said ‘the projects would attract billions of pounds of investment and provide thousands of new jobs’.
Yeah, right.
If they banned tractors tomorrow then they could also create thousands of new jobs in agriculture, and huge investment in garden spades. But it wouldn’t be sensible.
…and I remind FoE that digging the fields with a garden spade is also “dirty, unpopular and will not deliver for years”, by which time many would have starved to death.
[…] https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/stand-and-deliver-uk-energy-consumers-face-robbery-again/ […]
Lot of people live in high rise buildings. They are going to be most unhappy when the rolling brown outs start.
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‘Tories admit wind farms are a lot of hot air’
‘THEY stalk the countryside like giant Martian machines from HG Wells’ science-fiction classic The War Of The Worlds.’
http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/472207/At-last-the-Tories-admit-wind-farms-are-a-lot-of-hot-air