Government’s green energy policy is a “national disaster” – Net Zero Watch

Posted: September 3, 2022 by oldbrew in climate, Critique, Energy, government, net zero, wind
Tags: , ,

[image credit: beforeitsnews.com]


This has been the case since the Climate Change Act was passed in 2008 with minimal political debate, even without ‘perverse loopholes’ in contracts. Renewable energy is in effect a licence to print money.
– – –
London, 1 September: Net Zero Watch has condemned the Government’s green energy policies as “a national disaster.”

This follows the announcement that a major offshore windfarm will not activate an agreement to sell power at a much lower cost to the grid.

The Times has reported that the Hornsea 2 windfarm, which had a contract to sell power at £73 per megawatt hour, will instead sell in the open market, where prices have averaged £200 per megawatt hour this year, and reached £508 last week.

Britain’s struggling energy consumers are likely to end up paying a billion pounds extra for Hornsea’s electricity over the next 12 months.

The new Prime Minister should urgently look into the legal options for cancelling or revoking these poorly written contracts, the spirit of which are being grotesquely abused to the huge disadvantage to British consumers.

By 2026, there could be more than 16GW of offshore windfarms exploiting the perverse loophole (Moray East, Hornsea 2, Triton Knoll, InchCape, Seagreen Phase 1, Neart na Gaoithe, Dogger Bank A, Dogger Bank B, Dogger Bank C, Sofia, Hornsea 3, Norfolk Boreas, Moray West and East Anglia Three.)

Assuming they deliver 50% of capacity each year, and the differential between market price and CfD price remains at £130/MWh, the cost to consumers will be £9billion per year, at a cost of £337 per household.

Onshore windfarms, solar, and remote island windfarms will raise that figure still higher.

Reacting to the news, Net Zero Watch Director Benny Peiser said:

In the midst of the worst energy crisis since World War II, wind companies are milking the system by using a perverse loophole.”

Full press release here.

Comments
  1. […] Government’s green energy policy is a “national disaster” – Net Zero Watch | Tallbloke&#8217… […]

  2. pochas94 says:

    We have a strong propensity for religious thinking, hence the “Net Zero” craze.

  3. Gamecock says:

    I don’t like Benny Peiser. He is a populist creep.

    This is an example.

    ‘In the midst of the worst energy crisis since World War II, wind companies are milking the system by using a perverse loophole.”’

    His enmity is for wind farms.

    They operate in the environment created by government. The problem is NOT wind farms; the problem is government. Attacking wind farm companies will provide no solution; it is a distraction from the real problem. It is government that needs to change.

  4. catweazle666 says:

    “Attacking wind farm companies will provide no solution”
    Check out who has their snouts in the windfarm trough, plenty of politicians there!

  5. Paul Vaughan says:

    Diversified Discourse

    A wash+in energy doom & gloom articles (confession: without reading any of them)

  6. Saighdear says:

    I HAVE to ask: why don’t “we” glue ourselves to the railings, etc. in protest against all this nonsense. Why don’t WE jam up the petrol stations and refuse to pay high prices for fuel and other necessities. Why don’t we ? Where is the REAL PRESSURE being put on government for these absurd policies?

  7. Coeur de Lion says:

    At my age, my community would think I’d lost my marbles if I glued myself to anything. But I have written to my MP asking her to read this post, complaining bitterly at being ripped off £300
    by Conservative incompetence and asking her whether she thinks Polar Bears are at risk.

  8. Gamecock says:

    It is reputed that you can tell if a puppy is intelligent by tapping around his face with a stick. If it bites at the stick, it is dumb. If it bites at your hand, it is intelligent.

    Peiser is biting at the stick.

  9. oldbrew says:

    New UK gas-fired power station…

    The £350m machine that will help to keep Britain’s lights on

    Station to power up to 840,000 homes as war in Ukraine raises concerns over blackouts

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/09/04/350m-machine-will-help-keep-britains-lights/

    Talk of hydrogen production from surplus renewable power as well, but as yet there’s nowhere to store it, says the report. More subsidies wanted. Pay pay pay.

  10. Gamecock says:

    ‘wind companies are milking the system by using a perverse loophole’

    Gamecock can translate: “wind companies are following the contract”

  11. oldbrew says:

    Sky News today…

    Blackouts? No, UK will most likely face ‘brown-outs’ this winter

    As experts warn of blackouts hitting the UK in the winter months, one analyst has said the country will more likely face “brown-outs”, where system operators decide which sectors need to be turned off.

    In August, the government insisted there would be sufficient supply of gas and electricity for homes and businesses over the winter months.

    However, The Sunday Times previously reported that plans were being worked up by the National Grid to pay energy customers with smart meters to turn off high energy appliances.

    Amid the concerns, Matt Brown, vice-president of energy at the engineering advisory service Afry, has now said the UK would most likely see “brown-outs”, which is an intentional or unintentional drop in voltage.

    He told The Times: “What is more likely than the whole system being shut off is a planned ‘brown-out’ which is where the system operator decides which sectors of industry have to be turned off in order to maintain security of supply for everyone else.

    “At that point the operator has to prioritise different sectors and different needs so that the whole system does not become overwhelmed.”

    https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-living-latest-updates-energy-bills-gas-wholesale-liz-truss-announcement-12615118?postid=4409119#liveblog-body

  12. catweazle666 says:

    I would be interested to know who wrote and signed off such an egregious – potentially illegal – contract.

  13. Gamecock says:

    When the lights are out, you will feel better if it is a “brown-out” and not a “black-out.”
    Though Gamecock doesn’t know how you will know.

    “where the system operator decides which sectors of industry have to be turned off”

    “Industry” doesn’t like being turned off. It will move. Your economy will be destroyed. So, the system operator will decide which sectors of the economy to destroy. Quite a decision to be given to “the system operator.” Is that an elected position? Appointment by the Queen?

  14. oldbrew says:

    BEIS Secretary of State joins Ørsted and LCCC for official Hornsea 3 contract signing
    03.08.2022

    Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng, joined Ørsted and the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) for the signing of the Contract for Difference (CfD) for Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm.
    . . .
    Managed by the LCCC, the latest portfolio of contracts marks a substantial step beyond previous auction rounds – with Hornsea 3 awarded a CfD at an inflation-indexed strike price of just GBP 37.35 per MWh in 2012 prices.

    https://orsted.co.uk/media/newsroom/news/2022/08/hornsea-3-cfd-signing

    LCCC link….
    Contracts for Difference (CfD)

    On this part of our website you will be able to access the materials and documents relevant to the scheme as well all of our stakeholder engagement activities.
    https://www.lowcarboncontracts.uk/contracts-for-difference-cfd

    Hornsea 3 is on NZW’s list of potential loophole exploiters.
    . . .
    Scotland’s largest wind farm ‘using net-zero loophole to exploit cost of living crisis’
    Scotland | filed May 11, 2022

    Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, is looking into ways to stop the loophole being exploited in future contracts, amidst concerns that wind farms are profiting whilst households struggle to pay bills.

    https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2022/05/11/scotlands-largest-wind-farm-using-net-zero-loophole-to-exploit-cost-of-living-crisis/

    Future contracts? The damage is already happening.

  15. catweazle666 says:

    And when the “brown-out” leads – as such things can – to the necessity for the dreaded “Black Start”…

  16. oldbrew says:

    Climate sceptic at BEIS?

    Truss makes Rees-Mogg energy chief to dismay of climate campaigners
    Tue, 6 September 2022 at 10:24 pm

    Mr Rees-Mogg has previously expressed climate and net-zero sceptic views but will now lead the department responsible for the country’s strategy to reach net zero emissions by mid-century.

    In 2013, in an article written forThe Telegraph Mr Rees-Mogg questioned climate fears, saying: “It is widely accepted that carbon dioxide emissions have risen but the effect on the climate remains much debated while the computer modelling that has been done to date has not proved especially accurate.”

    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/truss-makes-rees-mogg-energy-202536055.html
    – – –
    Jacob Rees-Mogg becomes business secretary – and promises energy crisis will be at ‘forefront’ of agenda
    1 hour ago

    The former leader of the Commons has his first big department, becoming business secretary.

    Speaking to Sky News just outside Downing Street, he said it was a “fundamentally important role” and the energy crisis is at the “forefront” of the government’s agenda.

    He added a package to tackle this will be “brought forward shortly”.

    Mr Rees-Mogg refused to go into details, but said “nobody fails to realise the size of the problem”.

    https://news.sky.com/story/liz-truss-prime-minister-live-updates-picks-cabinet-boris-johnson-12593360

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