Bishop Hill Sober, scary
Nov 17, 2013 Energy: grid 
Gordon Hughes explains to the readers of the Glasgow Herald why their electricity bills are soaring out of control. His assessment is sober, starkly critical of government policy, and really rather scary:
Stripping away the complexity, the net effect of subsidies for renewables and taxes on CO2 emissions is to offer an average price for electricity generated from the main sources of renewable energy - wind and wood chips - that is at least double the equivalent pool price of electricity which is determined by the cost of running gas-fired generating plants. The incentive is somewhat lower for new plants but the margin is sufficient to sustain long term costs of wind and wood generation that are 60-80% higher than for the most efficient gas plants. The cost differentials are much greater for offshore wind (at least 150%) and solar photovoltaic panels.
Reader Comments (31)
Telegraph's letter page is producing some interesting comments:-
The Lib Dems’ green tax proposals are holding Britain back
One well worth a read is by "itzman" it tries to get a handle on the true cost of renewables
Says it all.
http://blogs.ft.com/nick-butler/2013/11/16/is-energy-in-the-uk-uninvestable-time-for-government-to-get-a-grip/?
Worried, why should anyone be worried our government has everything under control, not.
Green scheme and a red tape 'farce’
"Installers complain that £1.3 billion flagship eco-scheme to insulate poorest homes is far too complex as British Gas adds £90 to household bills to pay for it........"
Amusingly, there's a piece in the same issue of the paper by veteran eco-hack Rob Edwards which toes the DECC (Ed Harvey) line and argues the opposite point of view to Gordon Hughes. Hmmmmm. Who to believe?
OK, OK, Edwards was never the brightest button in the box, retirement surely looms, I may have mis-read him and all that but he does seem to hint that hitting the poor really is the way forward. "While [shifting handouts from bills to taxation] has its attractions, critics say it would have the major drawback of making green charges vulnerable to a tax-cutting chancellor".
And that would never do, would it.
Just to be nit-picky, it's been 21 years since The Glasgow Herald was renamed The Herald; today's articles appeared in The Sunday Herald.
See:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/exposed-the-truth-behind-the-big-six-attacks-on-green-charges.22716919
Greensand: AFAIK, "Itzman" was the guy who came up with Gridwatch. He wrote the code and set up the website. A neat piece of work: http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
Snotrocket
Thanks, I knew I had seen "templar" somewhere but the penny did not drop! I use Gridwatch on a regular basis, agreed "a neat piece of work"
Green Sand, I think itzman is none other than the man who produced www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk. Last winter it was the stuff of nightmares.
JF
Green Sand "Thanks, I knew I had seen "templar" somewhere but the penny did not drop! I use Gridwatch on a regular basis, agreed "a neat piece of work"
So do I. Just now Demand 43.79GW. Wind 0.99GW. Tells you all you need to know.
This weeks coming cold weather with a forecast static high pressure by next weekend will make for interesting watching.....
Green Sand
Thanks for the link - added to Prof Hughes piece and the common sense of people like Prof McInnes
http://colinmcinnes.blogspot.co.uk/
It brings the whole sorry scary spectacle into sharp relief.
Also I have never been a fan of the The Daily (or Sunday) Fascist, but they have become one of the few (only?) newspapers prepared to comment on climate and energy debates - and shout that the emperor is without garments.
Today -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2508573/How-BBC-turned-catastrophic-crisis-drama-global-warming.html
We have become used to the Biased Broadcasting Corp peddling rubbish, but when our Prime Minister starts to peddle extremist stuff which is at variance with even the IPCC we are in dangerous territory.
Cameron is either deeply on the Kool-Aid or needs to keep daddy-in-law's taxpayer funded handouts flowing.
Meanwhile in Lincolnshire the Folly continues....
http://fenbeagleblog.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/decc-jumper/
Talking of itzman, a nym of that string produced one of the funniest pieces of rudeness I've seen on the Interweb in the last few years, September last. Not for faint hearted, politically correct or those unable to take a joke against their idealised position, for it speaks of a clear negative impact of warming:
There are many reasons no doubt I should not have found that funny but it has going for it what Dorothy Parker once pointed to as characteristic of great humour (in writing of SJ Perelman): boldness. And what's the worst that can happen to it here? The gracious host removes it.
I doubt this would have been said without pseudonymity by the way - I find the same belly laugh on rare occasions on Guido's, though each person's mileage no doubt varies greatly in such areas. Swings and roundabouts.
We have become used to the Biased Broadcasting Corp peddling rubbish, but when our Prime Minister starts to peddle extremist stuff which is at variance with even the IPCC we are in dangerous territory.
Nov 17, 2013 at 8:32 PM Retireddave
Most of them don't even realise they're not telling the truth. They keep bouncing the lies between them and they really don't know or care who started it. Someone says it on TV and suddenly it's true. They repeat it and other people pick it up. Even if they hear the truth they either assume that it's a denier spawned lie or they think that a little fib won't be too bad. The end justifies the means and all that.
It's the sort of issue that 'good' climate scientists could clear up. But don't. It makes liars out of their claims to be acting in good faith.
Excellent Fen - love it. Well actually I don't love it, if you know what I mean?
My last trip to Gibraltar Point was ruined by that lot. I wonder how many birds destined for there are chewed up (when the daffymills are working of course) ??
And the MetO comment which rightly castigates the Express for scaremongering. I have yet to see a similar statement about greenery.
"Once again it is the season for speculation and big headlines regarding what the weather will do over the winter period. The front page of the Daily Express (Saturday 12th October) claims: ‘Worst winter for decades: Record-breaking snow predicted for November’.
We saw similar headlines last year and instead winter 12/13 ended up being only the 43rd coldest on record with an average temperature of 3.3C and flooding until the turn of the year.
What the Daily Express has failed to explain to it’s readers is that there is absolutely no certainty about what weather the UK will see over the winter period. The science simply does not exist to make detailed, long-term forecasts for temperature and snowfall even for the end of November, let alone for the winter period, which does not officially start until 1 December.
While we have seen a return to more normal, cooler temperatures for this time of year, this is no indication of what we can expect over the next four months with regards to temperatures and when we might see snow. It is far too early to tell.
Ultimately, we’re heading into winter and it is perfectly possible that we will see the whole range of weather that we get in winter at some point over the coming months, including snow and freezing temperatures, but also heavy rain, windy weather and mild conditions too.
Our five day forecasts and warnings will provide you with the best possible guidance on any periods of cold weather, frost or the likelihood of snow, giving detailed local information across the UK to help you make the most of the weather over the coming months."
retireddave
The Torygraph, just like the rest of the so called Fourth Estate has lost its way. DC, like all politicians, is trying to finesse the situation rather than sort it, he will never be a statesman and declare BS! The present day MSM is giving legislators the ability to avoid reality, free reign to "political science" means they see no need to put the spotlight on illogical policy decisions.
Basically they all are lacking in the nether regions, distinct lack of spheres. They have become a collective group of PC influenced, NGO lackeys even scared of a negative focus group think "maybe".
Ahhh this is what happened to the hiatus - there wasn't one:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exposed-the-myth-of-the-global-warming-pause-8945607.html
Good article by Andy May stating that when temperatures were much warmer in the past human civilization flourished. The paper has lots of supporting data including ice core data.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/11/17/climate-and-human-civilization-over-the-last-18000-years/
I was in Skegness yesterday, to watch the quad bike racing. I haven't been for some years and was slightly taken aback by that monstous offshore eyesore that's sprung up in the interim.
I did wonder whether the quads were actually generating more power than the bird chompers. There wasn't much wind and several of the turbines didn't seem to be turning. Mind you, the ones out here in N Cambs rarely if ever have all of them spinning at once.
Watching the AGW movement deal with the 17+ year pause is entertainment at its best.
It has obviously occurred, if one is to actually deal in things like records.
And the IPCC and other traditional AGW hype orgaizatinos spent a great deal of effort to tell us all to simply ignore it.
Now along has come a 'study' that magically makes those measurements go away, and tells us that the pause was only a bad dream for the troubled AGW mind. This post hoc bit of historical rewrite finds some trivial warming, far below the predictions even if it were correct. And I am certain the lords of climate will 'adjust' a bit more and find the pause was actually a record increase. All is OK with AGW dogma, and the AGW believers can go back to their endless wait for the climate apocalypse.
With, of course, increased funding.
Richard Drake
You should be ashamed of yourself!
Although your post included the normal flowery unnecessary verbiage it contained at its heart a belly laughingly funny story for which I thank you :)
(just to be totally clear here, this is intended to be a compliment)
Never mind. There is no need to get hysterical over energy costs. Everything will work out fine. All we need to do is to take heed of the web pages of official advice that the Met Office is hosting on behalf of the British Government.
Get Ready for Winter
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/get-ready-for-winter
The page entitled Stay Warm and Well has several pieces of useful advice. The second and fourth points are copied below.
2. By setting your heating to the right temperature (18-21 °C, 65-70 °F), you can keep your home warm. Keep your bedroom windows closed at night when the weather is cold.
4. Food is a vital source of energy, which helps to keep your body warm. Try to make sure that you have hot meals and drinks regularly throughout the day and keep active in the home if you can.
Common people or "plebs" would never have been able to think of such things by themselves, would they?
@Roy all done with the help of the Met O's new £100trillion computer system
..GIGO rule still applies
stun
Is this the same Met Office that has been making three-month forecasts that usually turn out either to be wrong or more or less sort of right on the basis that "we reckon the chances of colder than average, warmer than average, and about average are probably about equal, taking everything into account" or is this a different organisation?Weird!
We have always been at war with Eastasia, you understand!!
I've got another question.
You know these STORs - on which the likes of Ed Davey are placing so much faith in the event (it won't happen of course - 'the wind is always blowing somewhere in the UK' - official DECC comment) that there is NO WIND and therefore all these ferociously expensive wind turbines stop providing energy to the grid..
Well - as someone who actually installed a 500kVA generator to a factory in the West Country at the time of the second Three Day Week - in between the mains and the in-house generator, is a massive changeover switch. This is to STOP the generator's output feeding backwards into the mains - and creating mayhem when the mains comes back on.
SO - how - apart from reducing mains demand by doing their job as emergency in-house generators - are these (e.g.) hospital generators, going to help out with the load on the grid..?
@ Sherlock1 - As I understand it, STOR generators will be under central control via the internet. This is supposed to keep them all in synchronisation (the same as individual gensets in a power station). Whether this grand scheme will actually work, is another matter!
"The science simply does not exist to make detailed, long-term forecasts for temperature and snowfall even for the end of November"
As with the bumble-bee's inability to fly, Piers Corbyn's forecasts continue to do the impossible and predict weeks and month ahead.
Link
Working link!
Thanks, jamesp. I am miffed by Piers Corbyn's choice of enriching himself as he sees fit rather than sharing his wonder weather prediction formula with the rest of humanity. But, on the upside, he is offering 60 percent discount this Christmas. Support personal initiative and go buy whatever he is selling:
On that day, you can surprise your lover with a subscription to Corbyn's incredibly cheap and accurate advance weather forecasts, lest your relationship meander like jet stream. It is a no brainer!
I am not buying because it doesn't come with a set of steak knives.
dave ward - thanks for that.. Keeping gensets under one roof in sync is one thing (me - ex-Hinkley Point 'A') but - as you infer, getting kit dotted all over the country to sing from the same hymn sheet, is quite another..!
You've only got to get one generator out of sync and all sorts of mayhem can ensue - but - hey - if Ed Davey's in charge, what could possibly go wrong..?
(As they say in the West Country: 'Us'll see, won' us...')