Month: January 2023

Daily News 17 Jan 2023

Britishvolt: UK battery start-up collapses in blow to ‘net zero’ policy

This calls into question the whole economics of the UK’s climate-obsessive push for a ‘net zero’ economy. A general lack of enthusiasm for such a project is apparent, maybe due to weak EV sales. Where was the cash supposed to come from?
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UK battery start-up Britishvolt has collapsed into administration, with the majority of its 300 staff made redundant with immediate effect, reports BBC News.

Employees were told the news at an all-staff meeting on Tuesday morning.

The firm had planned to build a giant factory to make electric car batteries in Northumberland and was part of a long-term vision to boost UK manufacturing.

But its board is believed to have decided on Monday that there were no viable bids to keep the company afloat.

Industry experts say the UK will need several battery factories to support the future of UK car making as petrol and diesel engines are phased out over the next decade.

The UK currently only has one Chinese-owned plant next to the Nissan factory in Sunderland, while 35 plants are planned or already under construction in the EU.

EY, who were appointed joint administrators, described the move as “disappointing”, and said all impacted staff were being offered support.

Dan Hurd, Joint Administrator and Partner at EY, said the firm had offered “a significant opportunity to create jobs and employment, as well as support the development of technology and infrastructure needed to help with the UK’s energy transition”.

Mr Hurd said the administrators would now explore options for a sale of the business and assets.

The company was hoping to build a new £3.8bn battery factory in the Port of Blyth in Northumberland.

A person close to the matter said: “It is a great shame, not just for Britishvolt and its 300 employees but also for the future of battery making in the UK.”
. . .
The founders of Britishvolt were trying to create a £4bn facility, from scratch, without the backing of a major manufacturer.

What they did have was a vision which they hoped could surf a wave of political support – and attract the necessary funding.

Full report here.

via Tallbloke’s Talkshop

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January 17, 2023 at 07:37AM

Daily News 17 Jan 2023

The Gift of the Gabbard

With market prices for electricity so high, I’ve been keen to see what effect it has had on the bottom lines of windfarms, particularly the ones who are in the Renewables Obligation scheme, and therefore get a generous subsidy on top of the money extracted from hard-up consumers. The December 2022 year ends will be the first to show the effect of a full year of the energy crisis, but a recent set of accounts, covering the year to March 2022 allows us to see what half a year of sky high prices has done for the bottom line.

At 500MW, Greater Gabbard is a mid-sized offshore unit. Commissioned in 2012, it has been entirely uneconomic, making an underlying loss averaging £70 million each year. However, thanks to generous subsidies, of an average of £170 million per year, it has been able to hand back a handsome profit to its shareholders. They would have been looking for cumulative operating profits to surpass the billion pound mark this year.

However, thanks to the surge in electricity prices, the financial performance of the windfarm has been transformed. The underlying losses have been turned around to a profit of £74 million, so with the subsidy on top, the shareholders are a quarter of a billion pounds to the good. Next year’s results could therefore easily be a profit of £350 million.

I’m sure the owners are very grateful to consumers of electricity across the country.

via Net Zero Watch

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January 17, 2023 at 05:42AM