‘For your consideration’
Over Christmas I read some astonishing news. A paper which shall remain unnamed did the usual bash on renewables and this time it was wind. According to reliable sources taxpayers who already subsidies electricity generated through wind turbines, paid during the recent storm to have the turbines turned off adding further injury to the insult. A spokesperson for the national grid was quoted saying that the system needed to be balanced and there were no further explanations. What’s going on?
Wind turbines produce electricity day in day out and in windy conditions a lot more than usual. The owner/operator of the turbine gets paid for the electricity produced but because the electricity grid cannot take that extra power during storms the turbines have to shut down. This results in a loss of income for the operator and so the loss of income is claimed back, resulting in the electricity consumer paying for none generated electricity. Quite grotesque.
This situation could have been easily avoided if the national grid would have been upgraded in the last decade/s.
It’s known that in order to utilise renewables to their full potential, in particular solar and wind the electric grid has to be able to distribute the electricity quickly and efficiently. Somewhere the sun will shine or the wind blow and somewhere else somebody is needing that electricity. Unfortunately through the lack of investment, a Wild West style capitalism of the ugliest form and a government run and controlled by lobbyists the national grid was never upgraded to take the electricity generation fluctuations which can come with some established renewables. In fact it is in the interest of the energy generating and supply lobby to keep the grid ‘as it is’ old and tired rather than upgrading it in order to maintain their monopoly.
In a nutshell, the British government has successfully manoeuvred Britain into a position where multinational cooperation’s can dictate the conditions of engagement.
The truly incredible and surreal nuclear deal, (just like out of the Simpsons) is such an example and shows either utter incompetence or total corruption but little in between.
How can it be that in times of austerity tens of billions of pounds is made available for HS2 when the money would be better spent on upgrading the national grid. How can it be that while the top tax rate is reduced, benefits for the poorer are cut. Sorry, poverty is not a life choice but a series of very unfortunate events and mostly outside the influence of the victims. Poor and in particular short-sighted energy policy and/or bad governance are to blame for fuel or general poverty but not renewables nor the 'green crap'.
What will happen in Britain from now until 2023 is anyone’s guess. One day this government is the greenest ever, the next it’s subsidising the construction of a nuclear station with clapped-out technology. It’s not the promised future of Thorium or nuclear fusion no it’s a design going back decades with a thermal efficiency of 35%. What’s happens to the remaining 65%? Well its hot air and hot water which cannot be utilised heating the already warming planet further.
As proven over the last so many decades the nuke lobby manages again and again to mix wishful thinking with some science and sell that science fiction in glossy brochures to the government. Here we are in 2014 and if it all goes to plan we will subsidise this nuke folly with billions in exchange for some electricity. How much exactly will we get for our money is anyone’s guess? To put it in perspective, the 16 nuclear reactors currently on the grid produced 64 Terawatt hours of energy in 2012. That was one-third less of electricity generated in Germany from renewables installed between 2002 and 2012. Let me put this another way, over 10 years enough generating capacity from renewables was installed in Germany to increase the electricity supply by over 92 Terawatt hours to 136TWh that’s some 37% of Britain’s electricity needs, leaving the 64TWh the 16 nukes produced well behind. The rush to renewables in Germany has also contributed to the relative health of the German economy and different to Britain has had less black outs and is exporting plenty if electricity. Different to any other form of electricity generations the costs of renewables have steadily declined while all others gone up and that will not change.
Against the general perception Germany is still producing more electricity with nukes than Britain and at its height three times as much as Britain now. Germany tried really hard to make the dream work, having endless amounts of energy with no risk building some 36 nuclear power stations, many of them in ground-breaking designs. Germany has also quite a few sites where nuclear waste is stored and Gorleben, Morsleben and Asse jump to mind. The latter two were supposed to be perfectly safe ‘Entlager,’ (end stations) but they turned out to be not so safe consequently the search for a perfect last resting place for the nuclear waste goes on.
The reason why Germany is phasing out nuclear is not because the tree-hugger community has taken over the government but it’s the realisation in all political spectra that nuclear does not work and that renewables bring huge benefits.
The Greens, whilst in power in Germany put a political framework into place to encourage electricity generation from renewables. After Fukushima Merkel went back to the nuclear phase out policy the Greens negotiated but different to the Greens still subsidising with vast amounts of fossil fuel and sadly in particular German coal.
Back in Britain just when you thought 2013 had a bad ending in terms of energy and things could not get any worse, the government decided to go full steam ahead with fracking. The catalogue of problems which come with this technique are very well known, proven and still the government is sleepwalking into the next disaster just like with nuclear. Who is profiting?
Fracking as well as nuclear makes economically and ecologically no sense, well it makes perfect sense for a few lucky ones but not for the majority of humanity nor the environment. Subsidising fracking in the form of tax breaks, subsidising nukes by milking every electricity costumer is simply insulting. We have been throwing money after banks, getting little in return and now nukes and shale gas, we are not only gambling our own but also our children and their children’s future creating a catalogue of very difficult problems.
What makes matters worse that we can choose much better well proven and established technologies. We are fortunate today more than ever before being in the position to harvest affordable, plentiful energy, create substantial employment, economic growth and prosperity for many rather than just a few.
Still, despite all the odds energy generation from renewables have increased at a tremendous speed in Britain, hopefully more and more people will see the benefits renewables bring and the press will nourish a more constructive debate on these matters.
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