Reality Checkpoint
The purpose of this page is to give a truthful perspective on some of the energy news events which get into the headlines.
Ordinary people need affordable energy produced in a way which does not squander the earth's resources. They also need long-term policies which enable industry to thrive.
SOLAR PAYMENTS TO DECREASE
Good news for those who believe that the UK has been wasting money on solar PV in paying 43p per unit: in April the subsidy will drop to 21p, in Oct. 2012 it will be about 13p, and by April 2015 it will be around 8p. These prices are more realistic.
20 Feb 2012
HYPOTHERMIA CASES INCREASE IN UK
The official figures for hypothermia cases have been released, a few days after extremely cold conditions in the UK. 950 patients were treated in hospital for hypothermia in 2006-7, increasing to 1,876 in 2010-11.
Deaths within 30 days increased from 135 to 260 over the same period.
Correlation is not causation, but energy costs have increased by about 40% over the same period.
16 Feb 2012
IS THE 'AGW' CONSENSUS ON THE POINT OF COLLAPSE?
This short extract is paraphrased from the Catholic Herald; the full article by William Oddie is here . See also the similar piece by Howard Curnow in the Methodist Recorder, Dec 2011. .
....The idea of an incontrovertible scientific consensus behind current ideas of anthropogenic global warming is itself coming under increasingly sceptical scrutiny from another “growing number of experts”, as you will see from a very interesting article which appeared a week or so ago in the Wall Street Journal.
The article is signed by a large number of scientists.
The fact is, as the WSJ article says, that large numbers of scientists don’t accept this supposed consensus, and more and more of them are putting their heads above the parapet to say so. The reason is simple: that more and more “incontrovertible” facts are suggesting that the “consensus” has more to do with ideology than science: the most inconvenient truth, perhaps, is the fact that for more than a decade there has been no global warming to speak of, despite the fact that man-made CO2 continues to grow apace.
6 Feb 2012
ANOTHER ZERO-POWER DAY FOR WIND
Another cold day in England; 41F at noon. Coal fired power is providing most of our energy. Today's figures for UK power being supplied to the Grid just before midday were:
45.4% coal (23800MW)
36.8% gas (19300MW)
15.2% nuclear (7900MW)
1.1% hydro (570MW)
0.1% wind (45MW)
The figures are worth studying. You can see that wind was contributing about 0.1%.
45MW of wind power is close to zero. The price: £400m per annum, plus the money used to instal the turbines.
A hundred MPs have recently realised that our wind programme is doing serious damage to our economy.
It will be interesting to see what happens next.
6 Feb 2012
SHALE GAS
Interest in shale gas is increasing in the UK. A number of sites have been chosen (e.g. in Sussex and Lancashire) for test drilling.
There will be difficult decisions ahead. The UK needs a stable and affordable energy supply, to keep our homes warm and to supply industry. Shale may provide part of the answer, as it is doing in the USA.
If shale gas becomes important in the UK, it will be more difficult to justify investment in other forms of energy, especially renewables.
Expect fierce arguments from both sides explaining why the other side is wrong.
5 Feb 2012
CHRIS HUHNE
Chris Huhne is no longer in charge of Energy. He has been replaced by Ed Davey, another Liberal Democrat.
4 Feb 2012
RED & GREEN VISIONS
From this week's "Spectator Notes" by Charles Moore:-
In the course of typing this column, I have experienced two power cuts. This winter (in which the weather has been exceptionally easy), we have had roughly one power cut a fortnight in our village. I wonder if Chris Huhne may succeed where Arthur Scargill failed, plunging the nation into darkness to fulfil his idealogical vision - in Scargill's case a red one, in Huhne's green....
30 Jan 2012
SIXTEEN CONCERNED SCIENTISTS
On January 28th, an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal, signed by sixteen scientists. The following extract summarises its content:
"Speaking for many scientists and engineers who have looked carefully and independently at the science of climate, we have a message to any candidate for public office: There is no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to "decarbonize" the world's economy. Even if one accepts the inflated climate forecasts of the IPCC, aggressive greenhouse-gas control policies are not justified economically."
Entering the phrase "sixteen concerned scientists" into any search engine will take you to the article.
28 Jan 2012
STATEMENT FROM POLICY EXCHANGE THINK-TANK
Researchers at the Policy Exchange Think Tank say that the Government is misleading the public over the true cost of renewables subsidies. The Coalition's expensive and largely unnecessary green policies will cost each household an additional £400 per year by 2020.
Government officials say that energy bills will reduce when more energy is produced from renewables. However there is no evidence that replacing fossil fuels with more expensive alternatives will ever result in lower energy costs.
The Government's calcuations also ignore the effect on consumers of businesses paying higher energy bills.
None of this is news to readers of 'habitat21', but it's good to see the mainstream media slowly becoming aware.
19 Jan 2012
CONSTRAINT PAYMENTS CONTINUE
The Daily Telegraph reports that wind farm operators were paid approximately £10 million during 2011 for turning off their turbines. These payments are called 'constraint payments'. This has triggered a review of the rules. The payments are made when the network is unable to absorb any excess power generated. The charges end up on household electricity bills and are paid for by consumers.
Constraint payments in 2010 were £0.17 million, but changes in the way the National Grid supplies energy to retail companies, balancing the network, have caused a sudden increase in their use.
The fees paid are being reviewed.
11 Jan 2012
- UPDATE/CORRECTION........The Times reports that constraint payments reached £25 million during 2011 for 149,983MWh of energy-not-delivered.
Dividing the energy by the price gives 17p for each unit of electricity not delivered to the Grid. This is the first time that the Grid has released these figures. Apparently it is sometimes cheaper in remote areas to pay off the wind turbine owners than it is to upgrade the network so that the energy can actually be used.
Meanwhile David Attenborough, at the launch of the new wind turbine at Glyndebourne, said that even if we only generate a fraction of energy by wind, we must.
This is presumably his personal belief rather than a serious comment on energy policy.
21 Jan 2012
NATIONAL TRUST CANCELS SOLAR POWER PLANS
The National Trust has cancelled most of its plans to install solar photovoltaic panels at its properties. The high prices paid per unit by Government for electricity generated up to Dec 2011 (around 40P a unit) have been halved for those signing up now.
It's a shame for the National Trust, but 40P was far too high. The scheme was (and for early signees, still is) being funded through increased energy bills for everyone else.
10 Jan 2012
CHINA AIRLINES REFUSE TO PAY EU CARBON CHARGE
Chinese airlines have refused to pay carbon emissions charges imposed by the European Union from January 1.
A large order for Eurobus aircraft has been lost by the EU in response to the carbon-charge scheme. The order was from Hong Kong Airlines and has been blocked by China.
The US are paying the carbon charge for the time being but are taking legal advice.
6 Jan 2012
ELECTRIC HIGHWAY
A network of charging points for electric cars is being set up. It began in mid-December and it has charging points in London, Bristol, Exeter, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and the Lake District. Next year other areas will be added. Additional charging points will be placed at service stations on the M1 near Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds. There will be some at the Eurotunnel passenger terminal and at Fleet Services on the M3 in Hampshire. The charging points are being placed at Welcome break service stations by Ecotricity.
It will be interesting to see how well the system works, because I'd always thought that electric cars, with a range of about 100 miles, took all night to charge up. The blurb says that a full charge takes two hours, and a top-up twenty minutes, which takes some believing....if anyone has first hand experience please get in touch.
1 Jan 2012
NO SIGN OF CHANGING CLIMATE
Please click the picture... Happy New Year to all our readers....!
31 Dec 2011
COAL POWER STATIONS TO BE SWITCHED OFF
Government has said this week that three of Britain's coal fired power stations will have to be switched off soon. Six stations are due to be closed, but three will be affected "earlier than expected" because no exemption has been negotiated from the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive. The three stations will exceed their 20,000 hours of generating time (since 2008) if they continue to run. Note that the stations are not worn out. The shutdowns are due to EU regulations on NOx and sulphur dioxide emissions, and UK taxpayers will have to pick up the bill in increased energy costs.
It is difficult to see why the shutdowns are being described as earlier than expected because EU rules and 20,000hr-quotas have been known by most people in the industry since 2008. I was writing about it two years ago, and on several occasions since then (see, for example, a mention in Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy ), in the section 'Electric Cars'.
The affected stations are Cockenzie (closedown April 2012), Kingsnorth (May 2013) and Tilbury (July 2013). Tilbury is being converted to biomass burning but this will probably have no effect on the shutdown date since biomass is subject to even more EU regulation.
29 Dec 2011
AIRLINE CARBON TAX: TROUBLE BREWING
China has warned the European Union to abandon its carbon tax on airlines or risk provoking a trade war. An industry insider told the Financial Times that the Chinese government was considering measures to hit back at the EU if it insists on charging international airlines carbon emissions. (FT, 22 Dec 11)
The US has threatened to take retaliatory action if the EU starts charging airlines flying into the bloc for carbon dioxide emissions. Hilary Clinton, US Secretary of State, has written to her European Commission counterpart, Catherine Ashton, and other top commissioners, to persuade the EU to drop the emissions tax. (FT, 20 Dec 11)
The Indian government has asked its airlines not to submit carbon emissions data to the EU for the carbon tax which will be enforced from 1 Jan 2012. (18 Dec)
NUCLEAR DESIGNS APPROVED
The Office for Nuclear Regulation has just given interim approval for the design of the first two nuclear reactors due to be built in Britain since the original nuclear programme finished two decades ago. The reactors are designed by Areva, the state-owned French company. They will be PWRs: pressurized water reactors, and they will be built jointly with EDF at Hinckley Point, Somerset. However the start date has receded.
This is not surprising. As I said a while back, the few companies which build nuclear stations have full order books, and they are under no compulsion to act rapidly; we are now having to buy-in foreign expertise.
The Finnish reactor being built at Olkiluoto is more or less the same design, and it's running several years late. I have no current information on this and will attempt to follow up; I suspect design modifications in response to alterations in health / safety regulations.
Something fairly obvious: it's not advisable to demand late alterations of any kind when a station is under construction. Some companies refuse absolutely to talk about the design once the contract is signed.
An alteration, no matter how small or well-meaning, can cause enormous increases in cost. It can affect the safety of the station since it's no longer a standard design. It can also slow down the programme by a factor of two or three, as we saw a generation ago with Sizewell B.
It's difficult to believe, but it took longer to do the paperwork there than it did for some countries to build a new station.
19 Dec 2011
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