Place your bets now on when the lights will go off
Deepening Energy Crisis: Britain Has Become ‘Uninvestable’, Analyst Warns
Danny Fortson, The Sunday Times
The German owner of Npower is set to write off hundreds of millions of pounds on the value of its British power plants in the latest sign of a deepening crisis among the big six energy suppliers. RWE, one of Europe’s largest power companies, will reveal the British loss as part of an expected £4bn writedown of the value of its fleet of power stations.
RWE npower’s Major Power Plants in the UK (2007)
The loss arises from pollution taxes that are forcing the closure of old coal-fired plants. Big subsidies for renewable energy, meanwhile, have made even gas-burning plants, which are much cleaner than coal stations, loss-making.
The hit will alarm Whitehall, which is increasingly worried about the lights going out. Companies have stopped building new power stations amid a political and regulatory backlash, sparked last year by Ed Miliband’s pledge to freeze energy prices.
RWE, for example, has not commissioned a new plant in Britain since 2009, when it broke ground on a big wind farm and a gas-fired plant in Pembroke. Since then it has sold out of a consortium to build new nuclear plants, closed down plants capable of lighting more than 4m homes, and cancelled a proposed £4bn offshore wind farm. […]
Peter Atherton, analyst at Liberum Capital, said Britain had become uninvestable as political pressure over soaring household bills has intensified. “I can think of a dozen very good reasons not to invest in the UK, and not one good one to invest here this side of the election,” Atherton said.
Full story (subscription required)
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h/t to The GWPF
When the light and heat (or the a/c in summer) go off because of the lack of basic solid power that can’t be met by renewables (wind, solar etc) will the populace finally rise up and toss out the politicians that created such a regulatory mess that building new power stations is next to impossible?
That might be the day the execrable Bob Ward goes back to his home planet.
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I am one of the very few people on WUWT who constantly complains about MY POWER ACTUALLY GOING OUT / power outage under normal circumstances (not hurricanes etc.) It went out about 1 hour ago then came back on about half an hour later.
Please listen to me. I am in a warm country with small back-up systems like a battery in by laptop, re-chargeable lamps, candles, mobile phone with light etc, but if you have a power outage lasting for 2 days or more in London in mid-winter with sub-zero temperatures it will not be cool. Well, it will be cool but not cool. I lived in London and hated not having central heating in the early days. I sometimes took showers with ice forming on the inside frame of the bathroom window. Not funny at all. Wake up before you end up like I did, and that was before the CAGW scare really took hold.
The main government of the UK is the EU in Brussels and we don’t vote for it. The EU is controlled by the European Commission and the European Council, who are selected NOT elected to their positions. There are token elections for the European Parliament to appear democratic but this does not have the power of national parliaments. The EU demands the use of renewable energy and the UK must comply, whoever is in government. The EU’s own reports on the use of renewable energy and the affect on the competitivity of industry admit that it will reduce GDP and jobs unless the EU gains an unrealistic share of the solar panel and windmill market (the mythical ‘green jobs’). It is so far failing to gain anything like the required market share so the EU countries are set on a path of economic decline unless the policy changes (1 green job destroys 3.4 real jobs). The UK can’t deviate from this path unless it regains its independence by leaving the EU, which is unlikely before 2025.
given the subject of this thread, who – in their right mind – would be stoking up trouble here, to the tune of $5 billion in US taxpayer monies alone, according to Victoria Nuland?
Map of Russian gas supply via Ukraine
http://en.ria.ru/images/15520/63/155206369.jpg
i would post the following recent hot news from an MSM website….if only one would report it:
VIDEO: 21 Feb: Foreign Policy Journal: Is Ukraine Drifting Toward Civil War And Great Power Confrontation?
by Paul Craig Roberts
In an eight minute, 46 second speech at the National Press Club sponsored by the US-Ukraine Foundation, Chevron, and Ukraine-in-Washington Lobby Group, Nuland boasted that Washington has spent $5 billion to foment agitation to bring Ukraine into the EU…
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2014/02/21/is-ukraine-drifting-toward-civil-war-and-great-power-confrontation/
Gerry Lightfoot says:
March 2, 2014 at 4:16 pm ‘The UK can’t deviate from this path unless it regains its independence by leaving the EU, which is unlikely before 2025.’
You elect someone like Nigel Farage and he will tell the EU to go pound sand, as would I. The economy and National Security of the UK is much more important than anything written down on paper.
I remember that England had reduced power supplies some years ago. It would be dreadful for eateries, and computers. Who doesn’t have computers nowadays? If you run out of coal, you could call on the colonies (?) we have lots here in Australia.
DirkH says: March 2, 2014 at 3:34 pm
Where’s the difference between fascism, where the state controls companies, and socialism, as in Hamburg now, where the state owns the company? You are spitting on one form of socialism and endorse the other? You socialists are so crazy, crazy people/i>
It is a funny world, and people are so easily and so deeply indoctrinated. Big business has convinced us (me included, until several years ago), and our governments (through lobbying, political donations, and appointment of influential retired politicians to their boards) that only they (big business!) can run things properly, and that amazing efficiencies will be created by ‘the market’, and prices will naturally come down.
We can now plainly see many examples where that is not the case. My take on that is either a lot of influential and important people are very, very stupid, or, we are being blatantly fed a lot of lies.
An examples is the privatization of electrical generation and distribution in several Australian states:
http://www.etu.org.au/system/files/ETU%20Electricity%20Privatisation%20Report.pdf
Amazingly, in Australia, other governments bought up many of these assets when they were put on the auction block:
Looks like somebody got it wrong there, and I’m guessing it was the Aussies.
(Sorry mods, formatting error above. For clarity, here it is redone:
DirkH says: March 2, 2014 at 3:34 pm
Where’s the difference between fascism, where the state controls companies, and socialism, as in Hamburg now, where the state owns the company? You are spitting on one form of socialism and endorse the other? You socialists are so crazy, crazy people
It is a funny world, and people are so easily and so deeply indoctrinated. Big business has convinced us (me included, until several years ago), and our governments (through lobbying, political donations, and appointment of influential retired politicians to their boards) that only they (big business!) can run things properly, and that amazing efficiencies will be created by ‘the market’, and prices will naturally come down.
We can now plainly see many examples where that is not the case. My take on that is either a lot of influential and important people are very, very stupid, or, we are being blatantly fed a lot of lies.
An examples is the privatization of electrical generation and distribution in several Australian states:
http://www.etu.org.au/system/files/ETU%20Electricity%20Privatisation%20Report.pdf
Amazingly, in Australia, other governments bought up many of these assets when they were put on the auction block:
Looks like somebody got it wrong there, and I’m guessing it was the Aussies.
Ok, dang it … I give up! Sorry!
What were Dr Richard Lindzen’s words… oh yes…
“Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early twenty-first century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age.”
And now we see the effects in the UK due to the Climate Change Act 2008, no doubt influenced by the settled gold standard science of the IPCC, and the advice of The Royal Society.
jauntycyclist Mar 2 12:51pm – Kalifornia has that kind of democracy. The people enforce the provision of services, but refuse to pay for them. Representative democracy does have some advantages, but I do agree that it’s still a lousy system. My own view is that the key factor that raises representative democracy above all other systems – including direct democracy – is that it empowers the elected to make unpopular decisions yet gives the people the power to remove them, something which they should do reasonably often. I see the whole system as in unstable equilibrium at best, left alone it falls over.
Khwarizmi Mar 2 1:09pm – I have no particular wish to defend Churchill’s thoughts and/or actions in 1919, but I do think that you misrepresent him. From the tenor of your comment I doubt that you will accept this, but in 1919 the world was still in turmoil, terrible things had been going on for 4 years with huge numbers of people killed, many by poisonous gasses, and Churchill’s actual words (which should be judged by the standards of the time, not by today’s standards) show that he was no Saddam: “”I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected.” – Churchill, Memo to the War Office, 1919. My own view is that the bombing of Dresden in 1945 was far worse, deliberately costing many civilian lives for no possible military gain. Nevertheless, Churchill, like many other flawed people, had a brilliant brain, and many of his ideas are worth quoting. I suggest that each quote should be taken on its own merits, without resorting to ad hominems. PS. FWIW, my view is that Mustafa Kamal Ataturk was the greatest leader of the 20th century, and his “your sons … have become our sons” statement is one of the absolute finest, but I’m sure you could dismiss it by looking up some other less than perfect thought or action of his if you so wished.
This is all the product of the Blair years when strategic planning for the future energy needs of the country were put on hold.
Seems maybe the west thought it won the “war” when the USSR broke up. But perhaps they only won a battle and the end of the war is not in sight. It will not be won with military hardware. Russia may not be the enemy at all. Which piece of the mull-layered cake is most important? The piece opposite you or the one on your own plate?
As I’ve said before and I say it again: for those of you who are lucky enough to reside outside the UK thank God you don’t live here with our idiot politicians.
This is one of the unintended consequences of an energy policy based on stupidity, and the GHE.
Once the lights go out reality might set in.
As power supplies decline this is where smart meters come in to play. They can turn off the power to houses remotely to balance the load.
As power supplies decline even further the power companies will need to shed customers. Again smart meters can be used to terminate supply permanently, or until the household finds an alternative supplier.
Max Hugoson says:
March 2, 2014 at 11:34 am
As Marie Antonnette said, “Let them eat WIND!” Or should we say, let them pass wind? I guess I’m having a very hard time sympathizing with the SMUG, “know it all” Brits. You know, generally you WON’T freeze to death in England, during much of the year. Yet, you can spend a LOT of time in the “cold” (say a 50 to 60 degree F residence) and the DARK. Too bad. You voted for it, now live with it.
It’s hard to agree with a smug know it all when he hasn’t got a bleeding clue what he’s talking about. FYI the majority of British voters DIDN’T vote for this debacle. The last three governments were voted in on a decreasingly MINORITY ticket. The majority of Brits, disenfranchised of any real choice since you can’t insert a cigarette paper between the main parties, opt for none of the above because if voting actually changed anything it would be banned over night..
Jimbo says:
March 2, 2014 at 3:48 pm
The UK has some of the best educated politicians the world has ever known. Oxford, Cambridge you name it. Yet some of these people are among the most stupid the world has ever known. How can this be???
Prince Charles attended Cambridge. What does that tell you? It’s not just a UK problem, it’s an international disease. I cite one Michael Mann as an example.
“UK Sceptic says:
March 3, 2014 at 2:41 am”
Very well said. But this is the nature or “democracy”.
Dear Americans: This movie is coming to a theatre near you. The Obama administration is already working on shutting down our coal-fired plants with impossible to meet regulatory pressure. Next in the cross hairs will be natural gas. But they have no viable replacements, just platitudes about clean energy and scary speeches about deniers and catastrophic climate change. California had price controls on energy and rolling blackouts several years ago. That was just a preview of things to come if we continue to let Obama and the enviro radicals go down this path.
Hey Sasha,
You are welcome to move away from your “idiot politicians” in the U.K., but where will you hide?
Let me know if you find a place with WISE leaders, maybe I’ll join you. Over here, across the pond, we’re stuck with the misleader-in-cheif and his sidekick Joe Biden. And don’t forget that true dim wit John effin Kerry who must have OD’d on catsup and who is supposed to be in charge of our foreign policy. It’s quite a fright.
KRJ Pietersen says: March 2, 2014 at 12:05 pm
Adam from Kansas says: March 2, 2014 at 12:00 pm
“I have heard before that the wind doesn’t blow when it’s cold in the UK”.
Oh, you can be sure that the wind always blows in the UK, whatever the weather 🙂
___________________________________
Not so. In the 2010 winter, the UK had six very cold anticyclonic weeks without any significant wind. Just when you need the electricity, the windelecs (wind turbines) stop working.
SR
KRJ Pietersen says: March 2, 2014 at 1:43 pm
We have to stop thinking about countries in Europe as being individuals. They are not. Our power generation has been linked and combined for generations. Technically, France is but a part of Europe’s synchronous grid.
That’s Europe.
______________________________
If you think any electricity will flow through the interconnectors to the UK, when the home nation is already on the verge of blackouts, you must be very naive.
The first thing that will happen, during a very cold winter, is that all interconnector flows will cease.
SR
Don’t think it cannot happen here. In the Western Great Lakes six coal powered plants have closed with no new plants (not even NG plants) on the horizon. In cases of peak energy use, the local utility companies have to buy the electricity are the open market. Extrapolate this nationwide, and it will not be difficult to see that the US is less than a decade behind the UK in energy production. At least the Germans have seen the light. They’re re-opening their coal power plants in order to pick up the slack for the closure of all of their nuclear plants. It is ironic that the nuclear plants were built to cut down on Germany’s horrendous air pollution problem of the 1960s and 1970s.
When you want the very best, invest in green English socialism.