Letters / How exactly will all this lead to lower energy bills?
Thank you for Rhoda Grant MSP’s letter Communities need to own their own wind farms (Shetland News, 26 August 2024).
From her comments about “peat carbon sinks” and “fishing grounds”, we might think that none of the planned wind farms, on or offshore, is desirable? Too big for community ownership, they are also damaging to a major, traditional industry and the environment.
She’s right about community benefits, too. For 45 years, Shetland has hosted the oil and gas industry, exporting tens of £billions worth of oil and gas per year, yet not a single molecule has been made available to local homes and businesses.
If allowed to, the renewables/green hydrogen industry will continue that lamentable tradition, exporting electricity (notionally) and hydrogen south and importing it back from mainland suppliers at additional cost.
Then came the climate alarmism:
“To respond responsibly to the climate crisis, we need to … reach net zero … emissions. The climate is changing at an alarming pace, making weather patterns more extreme … (impacting on) … our farmers and food security … .”
No mention of whether net zero is actually achievable, never mind cost and affordability, societal impact, or more cost-effective alternatives to renewable energy.
By all means, cut fossil fuel emissions, however the present, incompetent approach simply cannot be deemed to be “responding responsibly”.
As for “extreme weather” and farmers/food security, the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board “Latest Outlook, February 2024” doesn’t mention that (link below):
“… there has been … short-termism, influenced by the Brexit vote, … no-deal planning, new trade deals, changes to farm support schemes, global pandemics and conflicts leading to a highly charged period of inflation.”
The only reference to climate/net zero I found was about the additional costs of CO2 reduction schemes.
Moreover, Statista has forecast 5-year, healthy production growth of 3.54 per cent per year (link below).
On global production, the US Department of Agriculture chart displays steady, uninterrupted, 60+ year growth:
Clearly, Ms Grant’s claim that the “climate crisis” threatens our food security is manifestly false.
Next, consider Shetland renewables in the context of Labour’s pledge to achieve net zero while “cutting bills by £300 per year”. P
rofessor Gordon Hughes’ (Edinburgh University) report on Viking Energy economics (link below) states: “(The) … net value of power (to UK consumers) at Caithness is £15/MWh while the cost of producing and delivering power to Caithness is £82/MWh.”
And, “… the actual cost of reducing emissions using the Viking project is likely to be more than £550/tCO2. That is extremely high, much greater than even extreme estimates of the Social Cost of Carbon, and wildly in excess of mainstream values such as the $29/tCO2 assumed in the Stern Review.”
Wow! Fools and our money are soon parted!
Add the costs of transmission lines from Caithness to Southeast England, conventional (gas, coal, nuclear) plants to maintain grid stability and keep the lights on when there is insufficient wind and paying wind farms to switch off when there is too much.
How, exactly, Ms Grant, will this lead to “lower bills”?
It won’t. And “decarbonising electricity by 2030” won’t happen, either.
Thanks to government dithering, small, modular (nuclear) reactors (SMRs) won’t be available in time (please don’t mention batteries!) and in any case, you won’t be able to install the necessary wind energy, even if consumers could afford to pay.
Renewable energy will never be economic. For net zero electricity you must have SMRs, anyway, so why not use them, alone – they don’t need backup – saving the high cost of renewables and all that they entail?
Overall, Net Zero 2050 is also doomed to fail, wreaking destruction on the economy and consumers’ bank balances, while exporting CO2 emissions and manufacturing jobs to China and India, leading to increased UK poverty and ironically, increased global CO2 emissions.
For heaven’s sake, Starmer, Miliband & Co, wake up and smell the coffee!
John Tulloch
Aberdeen
References:
- AHDB Farming Outlook, February 2024: https://ahdb.org.uk/agri-market-outlook
- Prof G Hughes Study: https://ref.org.uk/ref-blog/366-the-shetland-islands-renewables-and-corporate-interests
- Statista Forecast: https://www.statista.com/outlook/io/agriculture/united-kingdom
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