by David Turver
Although it is relatively thin gruel, there were some positive announcements about energy in the Budget Statement. First and foremost, the Chancellor chose to keep the temporary 5p per litre fuel duty cut for another year and the planned increase in 2025-26 will be cancelled. The Government claims this measure will lead to a saving of £59 in 2025-26 for the average driver.
Of course, the sadistic activist zealots at Carbon Brief are up in arms about it, lamenting the “cost” to Government of freezing the fuel duty since 2011 (Figure 1).
Of course, they omit to mention that fuel duty brought in nearly £25 billion in 2022, so we already levy huge taxes on fuel, making it more expensive for people to travel.
The second piece of good news was the announcement of additional funding for Sizewell C. The Government claims it has provided £2.7 billion of funding to continue the project through 2025-26, but it is not quite clear how much of this is new money. However, the final investment decision on whether to proceed with the project will be taken during the Phase 2 spending review, due to complete in late spring 2025.
The final piece of good news is that the Chancellor has allocated “only” £125 million to GB Energy (GBE) in 2025-26, limiting the damage it can do. Ministers say that as GB Energy is established the investment activity will be undertaken by the National Wealth Fund (NWF). However, it has only allocated £5 million to NWF in 2025-26, rising to £50 million in 2027-28. Interestingly, both figures are only a tiny fraction of the annual average of spending on GBE of £1.7bn and £1.5bn on NWF promised in Labour’s manifesto.
Sadly, the list of bad news items is somewhat longer. The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero is going to see a massive increase in overall funding of 22% per year out to 2025-26 (see Figure 2).
The vast majority of this extra spending is on capital items, much of which will be squandered on thermodynamic abominations like Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) and green hydrogen.
Labour also plans to spend at least £3.4 billion on household heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency. In plain terms, this means keeping the increased subsidies for heat pumps and spending on insulation measures. Most of these insulation measures have payback periods measured in centuries, and some have payback periods further away from today than the Roman occupation.
There is a further £1 billion planned for hundreds of local energy schemes to decarbonise the public estate. For this read more solar panels on council buildings.
Unfortunately, the Budget 2024 bad news keeps on coming because the OBR has also delivered an updated estimate of the costs of environmental levies. These include the costs of the Renewables Obligations and Contracts for Difference subsidy schemes plus the cost of the capacity market, green gas levy and the Renewables Heat Incentive. The summary results, showing the progression from March 2023 through to October 2024 are shown in Figure 3.
The latest figures show overall green levies are forecast to rise from about £11 billion in 2023-24 to a peak of £16.4 billion in 2026-27, before falling back to £15.5 billion in 2027-28. This latter figure is some 122% (i.e., more than double) what was forecast in March 2023 for the same year.
These subsidies and consequential costs of renewables will find their way into our bills. The £16.4 billion peak is about £585 per household, up from £396 last financial year. By disclosing this extra £189 per year in green levies, the OBR has single-handedly trashed Labour’s claim to be cutting energy bills by £300. Note these figures do not include the costs of the Feed-in-Tariff, nor grid balancing cost or the extra £10 billion per year being spent on grid infrastructure. Our bills are going to soar.
Our taxes are going to rise to pay for all the wasted spending on CCUS, hydrogen and uneconomic insulation measure and our bills are going up even more to pay for all the renewables. If you have any money left over after this Budget, spend it on woolly jumpers.
David Turver writes the Eigen Values Substack, where this article first appeared.
In an effort to offset these green levies I have installed PV panels, not new ones but 2nd hand ones. No installer fees and no grants for me either.
It seems these Green virtue seeking ones that went for the FIT payments do not like the visual effect of the bright aluminium frame on their roof and will remove perfectly good panels to have them replaced with new black framed ones. The bright framed ones the installer takes off are then either sent to land fill or sold cheaply to the likes of me doing DIY installs on the cheap.
How much power do the panels provide?
This year I should get 5500 kWh, with extra panels going up over winter I project 8000 kWh per annum. For every kW of panels I get 750 kWh per annum. What doing this shows is how intermittent PV is, most extreme this year was 40 kWh one day and within a few days only 3 kWh on a densely clouded day. I also ground mount all the panels so access for maintenance is easy. Very few people could do what I do, a normal terraced house is stuffed.
The possibility of having unlimited out put energy24/7/365/366/. ,
Now on order for $2500 /kW at 12volt DC for 10,000hours,.I Just ordered one.
This is the level of subsidy given the EV cars.
Taking a £40,000 electric car as an example and a 40 per cent tax bracket employee, you can save thousands of pounds by choosing an EV company car rather than a fuel one.
The EV owner will pay in tax 40 per cent of two per cent of their £40,000 a year income.
This comes to £320 a year, or £26.67 a month.
A petrol car that emits 131g/km of CO2 such as a Skoda Scala SE will instead pay 31 per cent BiK this financial year.
31 per cent of £40,000 is £12,400, leaving a Scala-owning 40 per cent tax-bracket employee paying almost £5k a year (£4,960) in tax, or £413.33 a month.
That puts company car tax savings for an EV versus a petrol car at a massive £386.66 a month or £4,640 a year.
Yes £4500+ a year if you pick an EV over a petrol car for your company car.
That’s fine if the EV is basically for prestige and commuting.
My son is in technical support and often does a drive from the East Midlands to somewhere 150+ miles away to resolve problems in a manufacturers factory. Frequently visiting two places on the same trip and often carrying bits of kit. A BEV with a claimed 300 mile range is not going to get him home again at a reasonable hour that day no matter how much it saves. If he needs to go a similar distance in the opposite direction the next day he’s not going to be able to do that.
Its been a long time since I had a company car, so long that it was then structured to push Diesel over Petrol (how well that worked out 😉 ). But it has never truly differentiated between essential transport and a tax efficient perk for managers and will always penalise those who need a car to perform their job. Tis the HRMC way.
That’s why most EV sales in UK are to fleets and companies not to the man or woman in the street.
Check out the Twizy demonstration ,in Italy, EV cars are here to stay.
My comment got down voted?
I wonder did the down votes check out the demonstration?
Did any one ?
The demonstration was of two Twizy competing against each other.
At the Latina Race track in Italy, last September
It is worth checking out, Might surprise some of you,
Are Keir Starmer and his ministers really unaware of the insane cost of the net zero insanity? I know most British politicians have zero scientific knowledge but surely they must be able to count. Is it possible that I have overestimated their abilities and we are being governed by innumerate imbeciles?
“I know most British politicians have zero scientific knowledge
but surely they must be able to count.
Is it possible that I have overestimated their abilities
and we are being governed by innumerate imbeciles?”
Yes.
Only what they can scam off the state.
Yes.
Yes.
All the official guff about net zero in the UK amounts to over 10,000 pages. I’d be surprised if you could find even one person who has read and really understood it all, certainly not any politician or civil servant.
The wind generators an Solare panels are now obsolete.
When you can order 1kW 12volt dc for $2500
I wrote it a few days ago. Are these people just incredible stupid or just evil? Stop calling spending investment. Spending on carbon capture and more wind energy is not an investment. I could compare it to African countries where to pay people to dig a hole and others to fill it up. Complete pointless but it creates jobs right? We do it more sophisticated with carbon capture and renewables.
A few week ago I read interesting article. A 40% increase in moist in homes. I know nothing about construction but older house were build with natural ventilation. Insulation might cause a problem. New homes are build vacuum, you need mechanical ventilation. In theory it will work but in real life people have things like furniture that might disrupt the airflow and create blind spots. It’s just noteworthy that now with insulation we have at the same time increased moist in homes.Could be coincidence.
Wouldn’t it be funny that insulation become the new asbestos?
Anyway, people keep paying for all this stupidity.
False dichotomy.
We are talking about “career politicians” here, it is possible — in more and more countries “likely” — to be both.
Note that for the “both” subset you need to look for the “éminence grise / power behind the throne / puppet master” figure. In 2024 that is usually the spouse.
.
Now, where did I see that poll saying people have become increasingly cynical and/or disillusioned with politics and politicians over the last few decades …
I may be cynical, but am I cynical enough?
“No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.” — Lily Tomlin
The 5p saving was never passed on, the retailer’s just took it as extra profit across the board. Ironically it was the one thing they could have taken back painlessly, competition would have stopped retailer’s immediately putting it all back on.
The latest nuttiness is Mayor Kahn, who seems to be planning to try and power the underground with solar panels all over London’s precious green spaces.
I used to wonder what it was like living a world ruled by zealots in the time before the enlightenment.
I no longer have to wonder because here in the 21st century we are again run by zealots claiming to be democratic but literally jailing anyone that dares to question their unified presentation of what is right and what is wrong.
When Galileo turned his eye to the heavens using the latest technical aid of a telescope enabling him to state without doubt the Earth and the planets all rotated around the sun thus destroying the religious doctrine which stated God made the Earth the centre of the universe.
Galileo was put under house arrest for his honesty, and desire to speak the truth.
Here in the UK we have today several well known ‘contrarians’ in jail because they dare to speak the truth. The State authorities will not allow such freedoms with even the Speaker of the House banning any politician from raising any questions about the Southport stabbing atrocity involving an arrested jihadist.
It is becoming very sinister here in the UK.
The State’s desire to impoverish its citizens by squandering their tax payments on Net Zero projects that are pointless and worthless no matter the cost.
They do this while removing winter fuel payment from OAPs by increasing taxes on energy and while protecting their own Public Sector based supporters.
The situation will not go on, because we will run out of other peoples money and people will pay the ultimate price for this mass hysteria called Climate Change.
Real normal people will die this year due to climate zealots denying them the opportunity to survive a cold winter.
The boy who grew up in a well-to-do northern English city suburb, along with a couple of short stays in Boston, and then in a rather salubrious part of North London; studied politics at Oxford; and has had no jobs of any note outside of the Westminster village. A TV researcher then policy advisor before becoming an MP.
All this of course means that all he has ever known is a culture of dissembling, blagging, bullshitting and generally making out you know what you are talking about when you are in fact pig ignorant.
But he’s a Polish Jew by origin, so of course no-one can say nasty things about him. He comes from the same stock as Netanyahu, after all!!
I’m fully prepared to say “nasty” things about him. He’s a clueless eco-mentalist and all-round moron who is a clear and present danger to the county (as is the truly abysmal excuse of a government of which he is a part).
Are any of the people in charge of this capable of doing radiative and convective heat transfer calculations, say on the level of a 3rd year engineering student ? Probably not.
So sort of like the Minister of Transportation getting road building advice from people who don’t actually drive cars or trucks, but have advanced degrees in communications, human psychology, and societal interactions…whilst civil engineers remain “opinion unasked”.
Civil Engineers are represented by their Institution of Civil Engineers that has a lobbying function, and contributes to government by offering notable individuals to do things for its panels, studies or whatever. But like many of the institutions in this country, Parliament, the civil service, local authorities, etc, they have been heavily politicised mainly through the infiltration of individuals with socialist progressive views, including woke. So of course the Minister will be getting advice from a number of people, but that advice will predominantly that to pursue the net zero fallacy, and the Great Reset as the goal.
Thus we now have heavily imposed costs for transportation methods to deter personal freedom – impacting mostly the pensioners and poor as always – and to limit choice. One thing that is very clear is that ‘facts’ are merely a tool to statistical-based decision making, with all the fiddles that such manipulative processes can employ to achieve ‘desired’ outcomes or goals.
London, we have a problem.
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/11/03/1000-km-of-pylons-needed-to-hit-net-zero-targets/