Inefficient transmission of wind power from Scotland to England is projected to waste over £16 billion this decade due to regulatory and planning failures, resulting in higher electricity bills for consumers. This is Money has the story.
The cost, calculated by think-tank Carbon Tracker, is expected to find its way into higher electricity bills for cash-strapped households and businesses.
The average energy bill is £1,928 a year, falling to £1,690 a year from April 1st.
The problem arises because, although the U.K. is a wind super-power, there are not enough cables to take renewable electricity from Scotland, where most of it is produced, to England, where most of it is needed.
When bottlenecks arise, wind farms are paid to switch off their turbines, and gas stations in England are paid extra to supply the necessary electricity.
The system, known as curtailment, cost more than £700 million in 2023, with a further £140 million spent in January and February of this year alone.
But costs are expected to shoot up, as offshore wind farms continue to grow, while cable construction remains mired in long drawn-out approval processes.
Worth reading in full.
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The UK is a wind superpower.
FFS
Hey, it’s hyphenated
Okay. F-F-S.
We have an abundant supply of piss too.
In fact thats pretty much all our elite classes have…
Yes, mostly hot air.
UK has 10 000 wind mills, Germany 30 000. That makes UK little league.
Well speaking of ‘inefficient transmissions’, this sounds like quite the mass exodus from the Labour party to me. Not sure what difference it’ll make though;
”Labour has suffered an exodus of more than 23,000 members in the last two months.
People have turned their back on the party as insiders say Muslims and other supporters have been left angered by Sir Keir Starmer’s stance on Gaza and ditching his flagship £28 billion eco pledge.
Figures released by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) last week show membership has plummeted to 366,604 at the latest count.
Momentum said: ‘These figures highlight the danger of Labour’s leadership taking its base for granted.
‘From a failure to oppose Israel’s brutal war on Gaza to morale-damaging U-turns and the mistreatment of Diane Abbott, Keir Starmer is alienating swathes of Labour’s core support.
His ditching of the £28 billion eco pledge is also said to have infuriated green supporters.
The U-turn, which Labour had denied for weeks, launched a massive volley of criticism from green campaigners and senior Labour figures.
Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director, Areeba Hamid, said Sir Keir had ‘caved like a house of cards in the wind’.
‘Labour’s diluted prosperity plan has gone from £28bn a year extra in vital green investment to less than £5bn. Yet climate action, including borrowing to invest in warmer homes, remains hugely popular among voters,’ she said.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13257143/labour-party-membership-falls-gaza-green-policies.html?ico=related-replace
Labour will be better off without Momentum and the Islamists. Still piss poor, but better.
“…the mistreatment of Diane Abbott”
Really? What was that for?
Also could the exodus from the Labour party consist of those fed up with Woke?
We seem to be a f**kwit politician superpower as well.
This looks like Carbon Tracker propaganda.
Instead of this expensive dual system of intermittent renewables which need the backup of gas, we would be much, much, better with just the ‘back up’ system. That has the benefit of being much cheaper and much more reliable.
The government needs to grasp the nettle and admit that wind power will never be a primary source of power.
We need to belatedly reshape our power supply industry to have gas and nuclear as baseload providers (having sufficient to capacity to meet a worst case scenario) and to incorporate renewables only where they can reduce the total cost of supply. After all we are constantly told that renewables are the cheapest form of electricity.
If the government is determined to spend their money to prove how green they are, the money should be directed to consumers to improve the energy efficiency of their entire lifestyle, homes and travel, incentivising individuals rather than greedy corporates.
I don’t want or need the government to “incentivise” me. I want them to prevent and detect crime, protect our borders and provide a framework within which we enjoy cheap, reliable and abundant energy.
I’m done with the government thinking it has a role in influencing or deciding how people should live their lives.
“No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race.”
Richard Feynman
Government needs to be incentivised – rope.
Renewables are best in niche situations: yachts, remote dwellings, camping, remote street lighting, low earth orbit space stations, satellites and capsules.
After all we are constantly told that renewables are the cheapest form of electricity.
But that’s a lie. If it’s so cheap, stop paying them subsidies.
Wind is a primary source of energy, but it is not a continuous source, nor are wind turbines efficient at capturing energy from wind and turning it into electricity and only intermittently.
Coal and gas are primary sources of energy, they are a very efficient source, can provide continuous output, and gas and coal power stations are about three more times efficient at capturing the energy and turning into continuous output electricity.
These are inescapable facts, which the nitwits in charge refuse to acknowledge, and it fies but matter how many wind machines they plant, they cannot be more efficient (physics) and wind as a primary source cannot be directed or controlled and so it will still fail to provide a stable grid to meet demand.
A mirror image coal and/or gas system will always be needed. Twice the cost.
Can’t they use the spare watts to manufacture ‘electric soup’? Big market up there for that kinda thang.
Imagine if I have a store that sells yellow trousers. My competitor has a store that sells purple ones. But purple trousers are impractical because the dye that makes them purple has to be imported from Outer Mongolia and is hugely expensive. But because government are determined we all buy purple trousers rather than yellow ones my competitor gets 100% subsidy and I get huge costs added to my yellow trouser operation. ——–This is exactly what is happening with wind. Government for purely ideological reasons rather than practical ones have decided we will use wind and will not use coal and gas. —–This is the economics of the madhouse. Yet governments and the bought and paid for news media will tell you “Wind is now cheaper than coal and gas” ——–No it is not. This is a bare faced lie. But this is what happens with pseudo scientific frauds. They can only succeed if people are told a pack of lies.
Swedish Wind Farms Facing Bankruptcy – Watts Up With That?
Oh dear it looks like the Swedes have no chance of being the “Saudi Arabia of wind”
Ah yes, ample cheap, clean, green energy, or so politicians, MSM and nut zero zealots would have us believe. The truth is very different.
This issues will continue to grow as more wind and solar is foisted upon consumers. Greater demand because of EVs and heat pumps, but less supply as grid capacity struggles, will ensure blackouts and higher prices.
Our illustrious leaders must know the issues that are coming down the track but refuse to acknowledge, or do anything, to mitigate the problems. We are rapidly becoming a Third World country with Third World services but sky-high taxes to pay for the indulgences of politicians and the public sector wokeraty.
Hopefully demand won’t increase that much due to EVs and heat pumps because no one wants the useless crap. If the Scottish government forces people to have these things let’s hope there’s enough transmission to import enough gas or nuclear generated electricity from England on windless days because in a couple of years we’ll have about 1GW of dispatchable capacity plus about 1.5GW of pumped storage (how long it could keep supplying that amount of electricity for isn’t being revealed). Peak demand can currently reach at least 4GW so if this doubles we’d be up s**t creek.
And. The further away the point of generation to point of use, the greater the energy loss in the transmission system. This loss is paid for by the consumer. Even if there were more cables, these transmission loss costs and intermittency costs would still exist and electricity bills will keep getting higher.
Coal power stations were (able to be) built near to the areas they served to reduce transmission loss – and there were no intermittency costs.