Green dreamland
Quote: ‘The system was built when just a few fossil fuel power plants were requesting a connection each year, but now there are 1,100 projects in the queue’. The climate goldrush is stalling.
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Billions of pounds’ worth of green energy projects are on hold because they cannot plug into the UK’s electricity system, BBC research shows.
Some new solar and wind sites are waiting up to 10 to 15 years to be connected because of a lack of capacity in the system – known as the “grid”.
Renewable energy companies worry it could threaten UK climate targets.
National Grid, which manages the system, acknowledges the problem but says fundamental reform is needed.
The UK currently has a 2035 target for 100% of its electricity to be produced without carbon emissions.
Last year nearly half of the country’s electricity was net-zero.
But meeting the target will require a big increase in the number of renewable projects across the country. It is estimated as much as five times more solar and four times as much wind is needed.
The government and private investors have spent £198bn on renewable power infrastructure since 2010. But now energy companies are warning that significant delays to connect their green energy projects to the system will threaten their ability to bring more green power online.
A new wind farm or solar site can only start supplying energy to people’s homes once it has been plugged into the grid.
Energy companies like Octopus Energy, one of Europe’s largest investors in renewable energy, say they have been told by National Grid that they need to wait up to 15 years for some connections – far beyond the government’s 2035 target.
‘Longest grid queues in Europe’
There are currently more than £200bn worth of projects sitting in the connections queue, the BBC has calculated.
Around 40% of them face a connection wait of at least a year, according to National Grid’s own figures. That represents delayed investments worth tens of billions of pounds.
“We currently have one of the longest grid queues in Europe,” according to Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation.
The problem is so many new renewable projects are applying for connections, the grid cannot keep up.
The system was built when just a few fossil fuel power plants were requesting a connection each year, but now there are 1,100 projects in the queue.
. . .
With projects unable to get connections, construction is either being paused or projects are being completed but are unable to produce any power.
Full article here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Stalled? since early this morning before the Haar came in, @Gridwatch told me little Wind power to speak of. Talk about BBC Research? puh! Meanwhile, https://www.dieselgasturbine.com/news/300-mw-plant-now-online-in-germany/8028852.article … what’s their Greenblob telling us? I understand that Habeck is squirming
A new wind farm or solar site can only start supplying energy to people’s homes once it has been plugged into the grid.
And the wind’s blowing, or it’s daylight and not too cloudy. Some unlucky hours/days guaranteed. Wind currently 1.5% of UK electricity generation, gas 52.7%.
Then there’s the turbulence problem…
The $1 Million Math Problem Undermining Wind Energy
May 05, 2023
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-1-Million-Math-Problem-Undermining-Wind-Energy.html
Who calculates these billions of pounds for the greenwash energy, does that show actual cost to the promoters or does it include all the lovely subsidies they will get?
I have yet to see the true cost of any green project that is proposed, including the removal of the defunct units at the end of their 25 year life. Another thing, why is the government involved in any of these projects? If they are so good, without subsidies, market forces would see money from the private sector pouring in – it isn’t and I wonder why. The government would be better advised to help the small scale nuclear generation industry which does not produce any of the so called greenhouse gases.
As an aside, have any of the idiots ever wondered why many of the growers that use greenhouses pump extra CO2 into their greenhouses to get better yield?
Please correct the above I suffered from fat fingers when I typed my email.
Oh dear…how sad…never mind!
NO ! NO! anyone been lugging in to the Wind power report by that plongker Just -in, tonight? (on the bbc) Justabout choked on my home-made Peanut butter toastie. Crumbs! Tears in the eyes, the droplet lens effect did not change the lack of wind, past few days… ‘Hoor’ they kidding ? and those overpaid presenters just stand there smiling. Been a really cold day here – all that Haar lingering and tonight felt like a taste o’ SNOW ( not unusual to have a hard frost at this time of year: where there’s FROST in the hills, there can be SNOW.
“Renewable energy companies worry it could threaten UK climate targets.”
Yes that’s why they are worried.
They need to pull their fingers out because as the effects of the negative phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation become apparent and it becomes progressively more undeniable even to “climate scientists” that the climate is actually cooling a LOT of these chancers are going to be left with serious financial problems.
You may want to rethink your headline. There can be a vast difference between “costs billions” and “worth billions”.
Dan – the headline is from the BBC article, with the addition of ‘Gridlock’.
The noisy new net zero pylons marching across the countryside – and what they mean for house prices
In Somerset, a project to connect low-carbon energy to homes and businesses is under way. And the locals are not happy
13 May 2023
These are a new brand of electricity pylon – the first departure from the familiar design in close to a century.
But discontent is growing under the new lines. Residents who live beneath them claim the T-shaped pylons are noisier than their predecessors, interfere with WiFi and damage the value of their homes. They have already driven some locals to sell up and move away.
. . .
When it rains, or the wind is strong, the noise is “enormous” [says campsite owner].
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/west-country/hinkley-t-pylon-somerset-net-zero-house-prices/
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