Telegraph
Commenting on wobbly Wednesday, the distinguished energy expert
Professor Dieter Helm said: “We are now sailing very close to the wind.”
I am not sure whether he was playing with that metaphor, but he is
right. Of electricity generated in Britain in 2014, 19 per cent came
from renewables, the majority of that being wind. So if there ain’t no
wind, there’s much less power. And without wind, there has to be a
non-intermittent “despatchable” source of energy, such as gas or dirty
energy from emergency diesel generators, to plug the gap. And if you
have to buy emergency energy, you – or rather we, the consumers – have
to pay emergency prices.
The problems of emergency are only the
most visible tip of it. Because, for green, EU-driven reasons, the
Government hastens the closure of coal-fired power stations (still 30
per cent of our electricity generation) and prevents the construction of
new ones, it needs other sorts of power stations. But when it held its
“capacity auction” last December, no new gas-fired power stations
resulted. The potentially interested companies feared the political risk
which now infects the subject and the knowledge that, if green policies
continue, the demand for non-green power will sink lower.
So
now we have coal-fired power stations closing down, no new gas-fired
power stations coming on stream and – even after the friendly words
exchanged between David Cameron and the President of China in London
last month – no actual, definite money to ensure we get the promised
nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. The energy “safety cushion” has
lost its stuffing. All we know is that the current renewables subsidies
of £4 billion will rise to £8.5 billion by 2020: we’ll be getting lots
more offshore wind-farms"
No comments:
Post a Comment