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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markx says:
March 2, 2014 at 7:07 pm
“(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
[I did not say this:]
It is a funny world, and people are so easily and so deeply indoctrinated. Big business has convinced us”
Well, you go on talking about electricity pricing schemes in Australia; without adressing the question what the difference is between fascism and state-owned companies. I still don’t know.
BTW, so the state-owned companies offered a product for a very low price? Hmm. Maybe the state sold it under production and distribution costs, subsidizing it with taxes? States don’t do accounting. Well, a mockery of accounting, usually, impenetrable flows of money back and forth under the most bizarre names. Often offering some cheap or free stuff to keep voters happy. Make the VISIBLE stuff cheap. Rob the taxpayer under some other pretense, let’s say, solidarity with the disadvantaged; or fighting Global Warming. Companies can’t do THAT trick.
Looking at the high Australian electricity prices I find this
http://www.solarchoice.net.au/blog/electricity-market-reform-comes-to-forefront-of-solar-power-debate-100812/
which links to this
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/coalition-split-over-energy-price-rises-20120809-23×64.html?skin=text-only
“Mr MacFarlane agreed and said by his calculation the NSW government was earning $190 a year from every household through its electricity assets.
”The biggest immediate pressure is the carbon tax but I accept electricity prices have risen because of unnecessarily high distribution costs … the government knew these astronomical price rises were coming through the system because of transmission investment and they’ve been asleep at the wheel. We wouldn’t be,” he said.”
So, state governments are ripping off customers because they can. And as the articles explain they don’t have to let other elec providers use their grid. So the national government seems to have regulated monopolies for state governments into existence.
Markx says
“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. ”
I don’t see Big Business at work there, I see Big Government. But go on blaming the free market and shovel your own grave by calling for even Bigger Government. Maybe then Total Government is the optimum?
‘The UK public voted those clowns into power and keep doing so.’ Unfortunately the other clowns are worse. When all major parties say the same thing and push the same policies what is there left except revolution?
DirkH,
Oh, a socialist.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wrong. That’s just another pigment of your black and white imagination.
In fact I’d be quite happy for your private for-profit venture to compete against any not-for-profit utility, with no unfair impediments: e.g., the same emission standards for both private and public competitors.
Are you in favor of that kind of competition — public vs. private?
If the mantra in which government is portrayed as inneficient and incompetent at delivering services is true (the mantra recited with skepticism by MarkX), it should be easy; you shouldn’t need to remove competition from the public system.
One of the largest “resellers” of electricity here is Origin Energy of China, a a member of the International Emissions Trading Association:
http://www.ieta.org/our-members
They don’t actually produce any electricty – they were granted permissions by our owners to shear the sheople every month.
“I don’t see Big Business at work there…” – Dirk
Try removing your ideological blinkers:
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/ang_hering/
(top-left mouseover)
Khwarizmi says:
March 3, 2014 at 4:31 pm
Are you in favor of that kind of competition — public vs. private?
Why not? Let’s make the playing field even though. Let’s remove the huge subsidies from the public end of the arena and then see how well public does when put up against the private sector’s free market.
markstoval says:
March 2, 2014 at 11:47 am
The Democratic Party in the U.S. would love to see us in the same boat. The left seems to hate the idea of the industrial revolution and relatively cheap energy. I don’t know why exactly.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is the Middle Class the Left H@TE. They are scared of the Nouveau Riche who might challenge their position, power, and control.
Similar thoughts are echoed elsewhere:
“A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.” – Ted Turner, founder of CNN and major UN donor
“A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States. De-development means bringing our economic system into line with the realities of ecology and the world resource situation.” – Paul Ehrlich, and Obama’s Science Czar John Holdren
“Global Sustainability requires the deliberate quest of poverty, reduced resource consumption and set levels of mortality control.” – Professor Maurice King
In the same way, climate change negotiations are not just about the global environment but global economics as well — the way that technology, costs and growth are to be distributed and shared. Can we maintain an open trading system without a more coordinated financial system? Can we balance the need for a sustainable planet with the need to provide billions with decent living standards? Can we do that without questioning radically the Western way of life? These may be complex questions, but they demand answers. – Pascal Lamy former WTO Director General, former European Commissioner for Trade. and presently the Honorary President of Paris-based think tank Notre Europe. Former European Commission President Jacques Delors is backing Lamy to succeed José Manuel as the head of the EU next year.
UK Sceptic,
A level playing field was described in my comment, under “no unfair impediments.”
As a matter of fact – and this is interesting –the public power utility in my Australian state was built with parts looted from Germany at the end of World War 2 by “Sir” John Monash.
I guess you could call that a “subsidy” from Germany.
However, throughout most of its history as a public utility, electricity provision was a tremendous source of revenue for the state government. No subsidies were required.
They sold the farm to pay a petty grocery bill. Now the government stands outside the farm and demands taxes from all the customers.
So we now have the worst of both worlds, all blended together in a fascist-flavored sucker punch.
“will the populace finally rise up and toss out the politicians that created such a regulatory mess…” – our extraordinary host (see article annotation)
“When cometh the day when we lowly ones,
Through quiet reflection, and great dedication,
Master the art of karate?
Lo! We shall rise up
And then we’ll make the buggers’ eyes water!”
– Pink Floyd
But in reality world…
“Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way” – Pink Floyd
It’s the Australian way too.
We Aussies are very complacent sometimes but not stupid, just slow to rise or voice against certain points of view. Most Aussies want to see the carbon tax axed. And as one or more people said to me, “If it would do any good, yes, but it won’t” These are country people who are used to droughts, floods, extreme weather (like snow) and there is a quiet disrespect for radical’s thinking that goes against the known proven ways to succeed in a very volatile climate. Recall unlike the USA there was no native grasses that could be used to convert to cereal crops and no cloven hoofed mammal. Only marsupials and two Monotremes. (The platypus and echidna) We realize water is our most precious commodity, and we most of us don’t want illegals coming here by boat to find an easier way of living or economic asylum seekers. Genuine refugees yes.
So we have to see how this new government will handle this. Personally I think they are doing a great job so far. But some MMS are still harping on CO2 rises causing extreme weather around the globe. Will they ever learn?
Re France. right now the present administration is beyond parody, however unlike the U.K. there is an understanding that the future happens. Remember that France is an axis member of the E.U. and is being forced to close much of it’s infrastructure under ridiculous E.U. directives. With the I.T.E.R. project and another project using lazers to get fusion power starting in Bordeaux in 2017 there is at least good reason for hope in the mid to longer term of cheap and reliable electricity. I the short term a combination of what the U.K. will experience plus the E.U. created situation in the Ukraine will mean a lot of politicians wake up very quickly, the French populace can’t wait to vote Hollande out, it is who will replace him that is the worry.
Hey Bushbunny,
Americans have a ballot initiative.
We have only dictators dictating law.
End of story.