By Paul Homewood
Nice to see some of the media gets it!
Britain is in line for nine new offshore wind farms after the Government’s latest renewables auction, but campaigners fear it may still fall short of clean power targets.
The nine new projects compare to none last year, and include what will be Europe’s largest and second-largest wind farm projects – Hornsea 3 and Hornsea 4 off the Yorkshire coast.
They are part of a new wave of green power projects including onshore wind and solar farms, which officials said will generate enough power for 11 million homes.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the auction had got the offshore industry “back on its feet”, adding that the projects are “essential to give energy security to families across the country”.
Julia says: “Human civilisation was developed by fossil fuels.” #edmiliband #netzero #juliahartleybrewer #talk
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“Ed Milliband is speaking nonsense!”
No change there, then.
Shouldn’t that be “Red Ed”
Weird Ed.
Red ed the criminally inept
Yes, why is this news?
It would be a shock if he wasn’t given that he looks and sounds like he has escaped from a secure facility.
Even if they are ever installed there are no lines to connect them to the grid.
Viking wind farm in Shetland has been open 1 month and has so far received £2.5M in constraint payments. Its was first proposed in 2009 and the link to the Grid has never been upgraded.
As solar and wind farms proliferate faster than the grid can cope, ESO thinks these payments could grow to £2.5 billion a year.
Blackouts here we come.
Not to mention higher prices…!
You will pay for the blackouts, be happy, and have nothing.
Ah, the media reports implied was fully up and running and providing power to UK. I did wonder about link from Shetland being there…
An informative blog post here:
https://www.ref.org.uk/ref-blog/382-newly-opened-viking-wind-farm-taking-nearly-three-times-its-cfd-price-in-august-2024
“In addition to the costs to the consumer of paying Viking over £2.5 million to reduce generation, the consumer loses via another complex loophole exploited by wind farm developers in that they have completed construction and connected well before the nominated start date for their Contract for Difference (CfD) where they have agreed to supply at a fixed price. Instead, they are taking the market price – for both generated and constrained off volumes – which happens to be advantageous for them.”
Is there anyone remotely competent at the DESNZ?
“Is there anyone remotely competent at the DESNZ?”
No.
There was an enlightening WUWT post a few weeks ago listing the qualifications and background of the various ministers and senior civil servants in the department. No sign of any relevant qualifications or experience amongst any of them.
This was it – truly shocking. Nobody knows anything.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/07/28/desnz-has-net-zero-competence/
A video of a spinning blade at a wind farm not connected to the grid would be a great way to show the absurdity of it.
Ref Ed Miliband. As Del Boy would say, “I don’t believe it – what a plonker”!
Mangetout.
Well, except mange_bacon_sarnie of course.
The truly sad thing is it isn’t just Miliband who has completely lost his mind – if he ever had one to lose – but the whole government on every issue you can name. The only success it has had thus far is in stuffing the Civil Service with its donors and friends, and putting a whole new batch of [Blairite] lords in the house (£316 per day + subsidised meals etc.) in ministerial posts.
But Miliband is in a position to do untold damage to the country and he’s that fervent a believer that he will do it, regardless.
“”An aide to Miliband said: “Ed Miliband and the Labour government have been elected with a mandate to make Britain a clean energy superpower”” – Politico.eu
Have they really? I don’t think they have. It’s a quirky mediaeval system that can throw up some surprising results (note Parliament itself never loses). Back at the ‘Brexit‘ general election in 2019 Jeremy Corbyn’s far left Labour party (deputy leader K. Starmer) got 3 million votes more than Starmers Nunu Labour did this year. The Tories got a thumping 162 seat majority. This time around, however, turnout was low and Starmer effectively got ~33% of the vote. That to my mind is no mandate for anything, especially as the turnout was 54%. So, effectively he has ~20% of the possible vote.
“”How Starmer pulled off a triumph with three million fewer votes than Corbyn””
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/05/starmer-triumph-three-million-fewer-votes-than-corbyn/
“”Ed Miliband Is Speaking Nonsense!”” And nobody in politics, the media, or anywhere else
for that matter has corrected him, nor will they. Get ready for chaos.
“”it now seems that Miliband might be taking a leaf out of notorious flip-flopper Keir Starmer’s book. One spokesman told the Telegraph that some outstanding applications would still be considered. But another then said that no new licences would be approved. To make matters more confusing, by Thursday afternoon an official in Miliband’s department was denouncing the entire Telegraph article as a ‘complete fabrication’ and claiming that no decisions had yet been made. “”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/07/12/milibands-net-zero-militancy-is-a-disaster-in-the-making/#google_vignette
He is the son of his father – Adolphe, later Ralph, Miliband.
“”As an already politically aware 17-year-old, he wrote in his diary: ‘The Englishman is a rabid nationalist. They are perhaps the most nationalist people in the world . . . you sometimes want them almost to lose [the war] to show them how things are. “”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2439565/As-Ed-Miliband-reacts-angrily-critique-Marxist-father–We-repeat-This-man-did-hate-Britain.html
That tradition of thought continues. Science? A highly convenient fig-leaf and appeal to (neo-feudal) authority.
We might as well have Mr Magoo in charge.
Nr Magoo and Sir Kneeler Starmer share many common characteristics. Their ability to not see where they are heading being the obvious one.
Just a small correction, Strativarius: I think the Tory majority in the 2019 election was eighty something, not 162.
Silly me, I omitted the Limp Dums etc but the votes cast were the votes cast.
And the government has given £30 million-odd to the “charity” of which Ed’s brother David Miliband just happens to be chief exec, purported to be on a salary of c. £1 million/yr.
Not to mention many who voted ‘for’ Labour were actually voting ‘against’ the socialist Tories for 14 years of lying about being conservative. So the support is less than the 20% which must make Two Kier the most minority supported government in recent times if not ever.
The UK has indeed gone mad. You have masses of people objecting to the Conservative Party, when in office, not being sufficiently right wing, so they conclude that the solution is to put out-and-out woke socialists in power, and do it. Right, that will certainly improve things.
Then you have, in another part of the wood, people determined to build wind farms in the North Sea or off the north coast of Scotland. There being no way to get electricity from there to where demand is, in the south, they then intend to pay these wind farms not to generate electricity. Right, this will certainly set a brilliant example for the world on how to save the planet. The world will be queuing up to emulate the UK in this heroic endeavor.
Then we have Rwanda. This was a plan to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda. Having set the whole thing up at vast expense the UK decided not to implement it. The Rwandans, close observers of political insanity, then realize they have been given a very valuable product for which there is great international demand, and sell it to the Germans. We do not know about the negotiations, but they are not stupid, the Rwandans, and Germany was probably the high bidder in a very hot auction. The result is, the UK will end up financing the export of illegal immigrants from Germany to Rwanda. As for its own illegal immigrants… well, don’t ask. Remind you of anything involving energy?
There is more, of course. Leaders of two political parties who despite being fathers in heterosexual relationships, who probably like all modern men have been present at their birth, claim to believe that some women have penises and some men have cervixes.
And then there is race…
Monty Python, come back, all is forgiven. Where are you now that we really need you?
How many homes will these wind turbines power when the wind isn’t blowing?
That’s why its called ‘Net Zero’ LOL
Energy security in now Wind security. Gone with the wind …
Related article from the UK Spectator
not paywalled
“Miliband’s empty energy promise”
Miliband’s empty energy promise | The Spectator (archive.ph)
“”Labour has committed itself to decarbonising Britain’s electricity system by 2030 without really having any idea of how that can be done. “”
We have long known this. The only thing one can say is: watch this space.
Nobody knows how to achieve Net Zero- whatever the definition of that policy is and retain a functioning economy with sufficient energy to supply rising demand in modern society. Why bust the economy and still fail to achieve the impossible? It’s a zero-sum equation if only politicians had the sense to understand it, and if the public knew this, they wouldn’t give any major party a mandate to prosecute it.
It all started with dodgy climate science and the out of control woke environmental lobby, and it will only end when the public realize there is no impending climate emergency, so fossil fuels are OK and can be used efficiently to generate wealth, petrochemicals, heavy industry, jobs and needed reliable energy. It’s not that hard really!
More importantly, MiliTwat & Co have no idea that it is physically possible to be done as the resources do not exist to deliver it. No cable laying ships are available until after 2030 so that’s all the windmills unconnected if they could even be manufactured or installed.
I just read that article. I didn’t understand this bit:
“the successful offshore wind projects had apparently bid between £54 and £58 per megawatt-hour – which looks like reasonable value until you realise that all these figures are still somewhat randomly set at 2012 prices and have not been adjusted for inflation.”
What is that saying? Is it saying the bids are submitted in terms of 2012 Pounds not real GBP?
Yes, its kept at the same base point set in 2012 and then inflation is applied to set the current selling price, so £54 to £58 becomes £75 and £82 in 2024. Smoke and mirrors so the plebs don’t realise that bills dropping by £300 a year promise is Unicorn farts and Fairy vomit.
Yes. However, with one correction. These wind farms being built where there is neither demand nor transmission capacity, these prices will be paid to the operators for not producing electricity. Nice work if you can get it.
The prices paid for not producing electricty will depend on the economics of the next most costly to curtail generator. The contracts will have a provision that if the day ahead price is negative, the CFD will pay no compensation at all. So the only compensation is whatever their competitor would need to justify continuing operation. If there is a lot of excess production that could be zero, and they curtail voluntarily. But if there is onshore wind getting say £73/MWh in value from ROCs by producing, with the market price at minus £50/MWh, it would curtail if it was offered £24/MWh to do so as being more profitable than the £23/MWh it would get for still producing. So the new wind farm could bid up to £22.99/MWh for curtailment.
There has been some attempt by OFGEM to stamp down on some of the higher bids for curtailment and some wind farms have been fined. Higher bids happen when there is just excess wind in Scotland and no means to transmit it. It has to be curtailed, and replacement (gas) generation fired up in England. Because the Grid MUST curtail from select wind farms they all bid high to do so.
And I thought you had to be French or German to come up with an impossibly complex and inscrutable regulation. Silly me.
Thanks for the explanation!
I am also not producing electricity. Where’s my payment?
That made me laugh! 🙂
Milliband has also committed £11.6 Billion to poorer countries for “climate aid”
Not sure how much of that is going to the Maldives this time round, but they’ll surely be needing some cash to finish off their new airports and resorts:
https://maldives-magazine.com/hotels/10-new-maldives-properties-to-explore-in-2023.htm
https://avas.mv/en/140052
You will note that so concerned are they about sea level rise that they are building at an elevation of many inches!
Ah the Maldives! Obama still demands that you return them to Argentina.
Crikey. And Argentina is 9000 miles away from the Maldives.
They don’t call him O’Barmy for nothing…
Diego Garcias, in place of Deo gracias?
It does all seem to be a bit ambitious, to say the least….that is to expect this whole transition to renewables, to happen: 1.without adversely affecting the balance sheet; and 2. there being some impact on continuing energy demand. What I can’t understand is why there don’t appear to be any pragmatic solutions being proposed by successive Governments eg keeping significant fossil fuel back infrastructure until new infrastructure is completely in place. However, without first hand knowledge of exactly how much it will cost, by comparison with what’s in place; or what plans there are for infrastructure, it’s hard to know for sure who is really spinning the yarn?
“”It does all seem to be a bit ambitious, to say the least…””
Where the impossible is concerned that is more than understating it.
“It does all seem to be a bit ambitious, to say the least….that is to expect this whole transition to renewables, to happen”
It appears that the UK and Germany are in a race to see which one can go over the Net Zero cliff first.
Can you say “dangerously shortsighted politicians”? They can’t see the trainwreck coming because they are fixated on CO2 reduction, even though there is no evidence that CO2 needs to be reduced.
There is no evidence that CO2 is anything other than a benign gas, essential for life on Earth, yet the leaders of many Western nations are in the process of destroying their nation trying to eliminate the production of CO2.
Can Western nations survive their radical leftist political leaders? That remains to be seen.
A timely contribution from Guido.
https://order-order.com/2024/09/05/ed-milibands-evil-plan-for-the-death-of-the-west/
Security !!!!. What happens on calm days, at night and other times when the sun doesn’t shine. The lights go out because of our abysmal failure to produce a decent storage system. We must have backup. Milliband needs to go back to school and forget about his biased donors.
If we eliminate oil we will eliminate humanity. Perhaps that is the plan. We need a mix of energy sources including fossil fuels.
Whenever you hear them babbling on about becoming a superpower in something or other you wish they’d just stick to wasting money on another feasibility study for a very fast train to nowhere.
So far worldwide about $US5 trillion has been spent reducing human CO2 emissions but CO2 in the air is going up even faster than before people started trying to reduce it.
https://www.co2.earth/monthly-co2
More CO2 is a good thing for plants and what is good for plants is usually good for humans as well
The Earth is still in a long-term 2.5 million-year ice age with about 10 times more people dying from cold-related causes, mostly extra strokes and heart attacks, than from heat-related causes.
Cold air causes our blood vessels to constrict to save body heat raising our blood pressure and that causes more heart attacks and strokes in the cooler months.
My video on this same subject.
https://youtu.be/Cl2HgLAswZg
I can’t wait for Winter. Hopefully, Mother Nature will cold slap some sense into Ed.
There aren’t nine new offshore projects. There are only three:
Green Volt: 400MW Floating offshore wind, at £139.93/MWh in 2012 price, or £199/MWh today
Hornsea project 4: 2,400MW at £58.87/MWh in 2012 price, or £83/MWh today
East Anglia Two: 963MW at the same price as Hornsea project 4.
The other offshore bids are for replacement capacity for capacity that was reduced by up to 25% from the bids submitted in AR4 at much lower prices, allowed to rebid at higher prices this time. The other bids relate to sections of just 4 wind farms.
From AR4 there was a total reduction of 3.5GW split between terminations and permitted capacity reductions.
The terminations totalling 2,014MW were:
Norfolk Boreas 1,396 MW (currently in limbo having been sold by Vatenfall to RWE)
Beaw Field 72MW (Remote Island Wind)
Mossy Hill 48MW (Remote Island wind: bought by Equinor who are working up a new proposal with fewer, larger turbines for 36MW)
Douglas West Extension 71.5MW (Onshore Wind)
High Constellation Wind Farm 50MW (Onshore Wind)
Stranoch Wind Farm 99.96MW (onshore Wind)
Plus 9 solar farms totalling 276MW.
Capacity reductions totalling 1,452MW (percentage reduction and any successful rebid capacity) were
EA3 318MW – 23% (Offshore Wind): 158.9MW rebid
Hornsea Project Three 705.9MW – 24.75% (Offshore Wind): 1,080MW rebid
Inch Cape 270MW – 25% (Offshore Wind): 266MW rebid
Moray West 73.5MW – 25% (Offshore Wind): 73.5MW rebid
10 solar farms 73MW – 20%
2 Onshore wind farms minor reductions 12MW
Total rebid successfully: 1,579MW
There have been some other small capacity reductions and terminations from other bidding rounds. In effect, the AR6 auction started well behind because of the wind dominated terminations and reductions. It has procured capacity that will probably average less than 3GW of output, with again a large volume of low output solar in the mix. Prices do not include costs of connecting to the grid and grid reinforcement in extra transmission and stabilisation and balancing.
Great comment.
Just think of all the wasted money, now and in the future, that is represented here.
This chart shows the cumulative capacity additions procured by the AR6 auction by technology, with timings based on the Target Start Date from each bid (this is actually relatively meaningless in most circumstances but acts as a tie breaker in the auction). Note the rebid volumes from the AR4 auction, which is still likely to see more project failures because of the low prices. It becomes uninteresting to hurry a grid connection if you have a later auction at a higher price, and eventually the project gets terminated (as has already happened to over 2GW).
I have had a go at mapping the successful AR6 bids using the information provided in the results announcements. You will see that “offshore” locations are actually grid connection points onshore. Overlapping geographical bids are unfortunately not displayed. I will update this map with the proper physcial locations when they become available in a couple of weeks or so. The map is mouseover and zoomable to show details of each project. I have chose to show some version of likely average output rather than nominal capacity so that the relative insignificance of solar is clear. If I get time, I may attempt to show location specific estimates based on renewablesninja locational data.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/kvKCn/1/
Here’s a simple image of the full mouseover map
There are a number of errors in the broadcast. The bidding actually took place at the beginning of August, not during the Tory government, after Miliband had increased the funding by 50%.
The government continues to do bad things, it is time to put a stop to it.
The result of Oz State bans on more local drilling and fracking-
Australia set to become an importer of liquefied natural gas | ABC News | Watch (msn.com)
The climate changers know it makes sense.
Its possible that what we are seeing in the UK is Ed Miliband’s growing desperation as it becomes clear to him and his department that the target of net zero in generation by 2030 is not achievable. Not even to do much better than now.
He has breached two of Alinsky’s most important rules.
Rule 1: A radical should never advocate specific measures. Because the debate will then switch to the merits of the measures, rather than the overall agenda of radicalization.
Rule 2: A radical should never assume office in the current system or participate in government in the current system. Because then they will be swamped in the detail of implementation, open to criticism for failures, make compromises to get something done, bend in response to voter pressure, all of which will result in dilution of the program, and loss of momentum.
There is only one way for the radical agenda to work: you have to come to power with no announced specific agenda and the ability to rule by decree. You can’t get swamped in the daily political process of horse trading and voter pleasing. Then implement the full program immediately, and accompany it by the forcible repression of all dissent.
This isn’t going to happen in Britain and so the current trajectory Miliband is on will lead to failure.
Prediction: Miliband is going to blow up the Labour Party in Britain, by 2029 at the latest (which is the latest date for the next general election), and very likely sooner, as his energy policies start to bite and to fail.
We shall see!
The man is a fanatic, a climate loon, or a WEF puppet, following stupid orders.
Miliband isn’t capable of understanding what we would expect a toddler to know about anything let alone comprehend anything at all about energy generation efficiency and relative greenness. He is driven by the same woke misinformation and lies that the Tories and the Lib Dems have also settled for. One day some on will speak a word of truth in the HoC and Parliament will instantly dissolve …
Unfortunately we have very, very low IQ front benches on all sides of the HoC. Home based nuclear investment would be an acceptable alternative answer to the UK’s present predicament but we appear to want to disintegrate into an island ruled by idiots and others among the current riffraff despite sitting on clean natural gas resources and nuclear know how (but not for very long at the rate we are going) .
Miliband’s next problem: increasing wind capacity will mean rising curtailment which will hit new wind farms that get no compensation when prices go negative really hard. They will need to double their prices to make up for curtailing half their output.