Blowing in the wind: are Boris’s renewable ambitions realistic?

Boris Johnson wants us to set our gaze beyond the coronavirus pandemic to contemplate a future when our homes are powered by wind alone.

Is he tilting at windmills like Don Quixote? Victor Hill @ Master Investor is asking.

The vision thing

Right now, the British prime minister’s in-tray is full – but one of the items requiring his keen attention is the UK’s commitment to transition to a net carbon neutral economy by 2050, as decreed by his predecessor, Mrs May.

During his digital address to the virtual reality Conservative Party Conference 2020, beamed through cyberspace on 06 October, one of the key themes was to build back better by harnessing a valuable resource which Britain possesses in abundance: wind.

As oil crashes, ‘America’s untapped energy giant’ could rise

Geothermal Power Plant in Iceland [image credit: Wikipedia]

Geothermal energy is expensive even compared to renewables, but are the economics about to change? Maybe not, as the Russians and Saudis seem to have called off their oil production war, so sudden availability of lots of experienced but out-of-work shale drillers may not happen, although the virus factor continues. Also subsidy rates are biased towards intermittent wind and solar, compared to more reliable geothermal power sources.

The coronavirus oil crash could be good news for this renewable energy underdog, says Grist.

Disruptions to supply chains and slowdowns in permitting and construction have delayed solar and wind projects, endangering their eligibility for the soon-to-expire investment tax credits they rely on.

There’s another form of renewable energy, however, that might see a benefit from the recent global economic upheaval and emerge in a better position to help the United States decarbonize its electricity system: geothermal.

Energy customers foot the bill for failed climate policy

Not only do we have a bad policy, we have a badly implemented bad policy, as the GWPF explains.

Dr John Constable, GWPF’s Energy Editor, contributed a “Thunderer” column to The Times on the 27th of October 2017 commenting on Professor Helm’s recent study for the UK government on the cost of energy (“Energy customers foot the bill for failed climate policy”).

Subsidies to renewable electricity in the UK cost £5 billion a year at present and will rise to more than £8 billion a year by 2020, all drawn from the bills of domestic and business consumers.

One third of this hits households directly through their electricity bills — about 20 per cent of the bill in fact — while the other two thirds, paid in the first instance by businesses, is passed on to households in the general cost of living.

German wind farms to be terminated as subsidies run out

The short working life of wind turbines compared to power stations, plus their lack of commercial viability, will likely put the brakes on German renewables expansion according to this GWPF report. Where do used wind farms go to die?

Wind power is the most important component of Germany’s green energy transition.

The end of subsidies for older turbines, however, threatens countless wind farms. By 2023, more than a quarter of Germany’s onshore wind farms may be gone.

Sun sets on Europe’s biggest solar company

H/T GWPF

Is solar power in terminal decline in Europe, as subsidies and public enthusiasm dwindle?

Germany’s SolarWorld, once Europe’s biggest solar power equipment group, said on Wednesday it would file for insolvency, overwhelmed by Chinese rivals who had long been a thorn in the side of founder and CEO Frank Asbeck, once known as “the Sun King”.

SolarWorld was one of the few German solar power companies to survive a major crisis at the turn of the decade, caused by a glut in production of panels that led prices to fall and peers to collapse, including Q-Cells, Solon and Conergy.

Denmark Slashes Wind Power Subsidies to Curb Runaway Power Costs

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How long will it be before people start to react in countries where heavy industries are closing at an alarming rate and power supplies are under increasing threat?

STOP THESE THINGS

When the wind industry and its worshippers start chanting their mantras about the ‘wonders’ of wind, it isn’t long before they start preaching about the examples purportedly set by the Europeans; and, in particular, the Nordic nations.

That the great wind power fraud was driven by Denmark’s struggling turbine maker, Vestas probably has a fair bit to do with the worshippers’ fanatic-cult-like veneration of Scandinavia.

But, hold the phone?

It seems that economics works in precisely the same fashion in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway, as just about everywhere else (save Cuba and North Korea, say?).

When you’re trying to sell a ‘product’ with NO commercial value, the ‘business’ – for want of a better word – can only be about what you can extract from gullible/compliant governments (and unwitting power consumers), in the form of massive and endless subsidies.

Now, in the wind industry’s heartland, the Danes…

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Gas made from cheese to heat hundreds of homes

New fuel source [image credit: telegraph.co.uk]

Despite appearances this is a Daily Telegraph report, not an April Fool joke.

Hundreds of homes in Cumbria will be heated using cheese from next month, as a new government-backed green energy plant starts producing gas from cheddar production waste.

The anaerobic digestion plant at the Lake District Creamery in Aspatria will receive millions of pounds in subsidies for turning whey and other residues from the cheese production process into “biogas”.

Unreliables subsidy to hit £11 Billion by 2020

H/T to @MhehedZherting

Climate Change is Now a $1.5 Trillion Industry

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So this is what they mean by ‘runaway climate change’.

American Elephants

The Climate Change Business Journal has calculated that Climate Change is now its own $1.5 trillion global “climate change industry” that is growing at between 17 and 24 percent annually from 2005-2008. Following the recession, growth slowed to between 4 to 6 percent with the exception of a bump in 2011 of 15 percent growth. These results were published in the Insurance Journal, for the climate journal is not available for free online.

The publication includes nine segments and 38 sub-segments including renewables, green building and hybrid cars. It also includes the climate change consulting market which the journal estimates at $1.9 billion worldwide, and $890 million in the U.S. The consulting market is expected to double in the next five years. The report’s authors believe the climate change industry as a whole will grow even faster. The Climate Change Consulting market  had billings of $600 million in 1976 and…

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The Wind Industry: always and everywhere the result of massive & endless subsidies

[image credit: beforeitsnews.com]

Another no-punches-pulled analysis from StopTheseThings (STT). Is this really what people want?

In yesterday’s post – The Wind Industry: Always and Everywhere the Result of Massive & Endless Subsidies (Part 1) – we covered the fact that the Australian wind industry exists – and ONLY exists – for one single purpose: to wallow in a subsidy stream which will hit A$3 billion annually in 2019; and continue at that colossal rate until 2031.

From hereon, the cost of the greatest subsidy rort in the history of the Commonwealth will exceed A$45 billion – every last cent of which will be recovered from Australian power consumers through retail power bills.

More UK ‘green’ energy subsidies facing the axe

Under threat?

Who will complain if their energy bills go down or at least rise at a slower rate, when ‘out of control subsidies’ are cut or abolished?

Subsidies for new wind farms and solar power plants are set to be cut as ministers move to protect millions of families from rising energy bills, says the UK Daily Telegraph.

The government is expected to announce the decision this week, after official figures revealed that so-called “green” energy schemes will require £1.5 billion more in subsidies – paid for by customers – than originally planned.

Sailing close to the wind: Germany’s future power supply ‘not financially viable’

A dying breed?

How obvious does it have to be before supposed leaders notice the dire energy generation mess they’re creating with relentless subsidy of renewables and forced closure of some thermal power plants? Breitbart comments:

The future of Germany’s base load power supply is now in doubt as non-renewable energy sources cannot compete against subsidies, Reuters reports.

German energy industry association BDEW has stated that the planned new-build coal and gas fired power stations are potentially unprofitable and investors are nervous as a result. They will compete not only against the subsidies regime that benefits the renewables sector but also harsh restrictions on carbon emissions.

The construction of up to 39 planned stations may now be in doubt, meaning Germany will face supply bottlenecks soon especially as its nuclear power will be completely phased out by 2022. BDEW estimates a loss of 16.7 gigawatts in base load supply by this date.

This adds to problems previously reported by Breitbart with renewable power sources causing instability in the German grid.

Tidal power from Pentland firth ‘could provide half of Scotland’s electricity’

From the Guardian:

The world’s best site for tidal power, the Pentland firth, could provide half of Scotland‘s electricity, according to the first robust estimate of its potential. The tidal streams, which surge through the firth at five metres per second, could bring large amounts of renewable energy in reach within a decade if enough government support is available, said the Oxford University engineer behind the new study.

From Anglesey to the Severn estuary to Portland Bill, the UK has the greatest potential for generating predictable, clean energy from tidal channels. Turbines are already operating at Strangford Loch in Northern Ireland and prototypes are being tested in the Menai Straits off Anglesey.