Campaign group Net Zero Watch has ridiculed UK Energy Minister Claire Coutinho’s claim that handing a price increase of 66% to wind farm operators is part of her plan for ‘bringing bills down for families.’
Net Zero Watch Director Andrew Montford said [emphasis, links added]:
“Poor Claire Coutinho has only been on the job for a few weeks, and her civil servants have already made her look foolish. The idea that you can double prices paid to generators and at the same time reduce electricity bills is simply preposterous.“
Net Zero Watch’s statement comes after the energy minister announced an astonishing round of price increases, with offshore wind offered at 66%, floating offshore wind at 52%, geothermal at 32%, solar at 32%, and tidal at 29%.
The prices for some of these technologies are now up to six times higher than long-term market averages.
Since Contracts for Difference are index-linked, claims that these increases address recent inflationary effects are simply implausible.
As work by numerous researchers has shown, the renewables industry in general, and the offshore wind industry, in particular, has been less than candid about its true capital and operating costs, and the earlier low bids in the CfD auctions were a market positioning and PR gesture that did not reflect the true cost of generation.
We have long predicted that the wind industry would be back with its begging bowl. It is disappointing in the extreme that the government has betrayed consumers by giving in to this blackmail.
Worse still, the 66% increase is a minimum: the government is offering wind farm operators ‘more money’ ‘if they reduce carbon emissions in their supply chains and demonstrate positive social impact on communities’.
How much money is not specified, leaving the cost to consumers and taxpayers open-ended.
And Mr. Montford has slammed Whitehall officials for misleading the public over renewables costs and has warned that consumers should expect hefty price increases.
“Just a few months ago, Whitehall was telling us that offshore wind was extraordinarily cheap. That was a lie, and we are now seeing the truth emerging, with the Government’s complete surrender to green lobbyists. Consumers and businesses should expect yet more increases in their electricity bills. When will this end?”
In light of today’s cave-in, Net Zero Watch is calling for DESNZ to withdraw its Generation Costs report, which continues to insist that offshore wind is cheap – less than half the figure offered to developers today.
Ridiculed?
In our headlong rush to ‘save the Planet’ perhaps a sobering reality check for the deluded is long overdue?
A small, ever-so-green, 100Mw wind farm needs 30,000 tons of Iron ore; 50,000 tons of concrete and 900 tons of non-recyclable plastic.
For the same power from an ever-so-green solar farm you need to increase that by 150%.
An electric car battery weighs half a ton, making just one requires shifting 250 tons of earth somewhere else on the planet. Most are bought as second ‘virtue’ cars by the rich metropolitan elite.
All require what are called ‘rare earths’, so a phenomenal 200% – 2,000% increase in toxic mining, processing and shipping is required somewhere else on the planet, usually from unregulated regimes with very lax environmental standards.
Solar and Wind have weather-dependant limits but we need energy ALL the time, so we have to have permanent back-up. The giant Tesla Factory in Nevada would take 500 years to make enough batteries to supply the USA with electricity for 1 day!
After 30 years and countless Billions in subsidies wind and solar supply less than 3% of the World’s energy. On top of that, like all machines ‘renewables’ are built from non-renewable materials – and have to be replaced time and time again, so definitely NOT a one-off cost.
The International Renewable Energy Agency calculates that solar energy goals for 2050 to meet the Paris Accord will result in old-panel disposal constituting more than DOUBLE the tonnage of all today’s global plastic waste!
The Environmental Cost?
To accommodate 2,000 MW of gas or nuclear power generation requires the same area of two 18-hole golf courses. Whereas, accommodating 2,000 MW of wind power requires an area the size of Belgium!
The resultant habitat loss and wildlife slaughter is simply incalculable.
Then, of course, you still need 2,000 MW of gas or nuclear power to accommodate those hundreds of occasions each year when wind and solar power is producing absolutely nothing.
Instead of ‘Saving the planet’ rampaging renewables are actually devouring it!
Of course all the mining and processing of these minerals will somehow require those evil fossil fuels. Ain’t gonna happen with “green energy”. But these idiots think that there are magical ways to do this.
The UK will never be the same again with Wind turbines spoiling the view