By Paul Homewood
It is sad to think there used to be a time when the Telegraph’s business journalists knew what they were talking about:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/02/britains-paralysis-china-obliterate-renewable-power/
Marlow makes several spurious and misleading claims:
He forgets to mention that all of this trailblazing has already cost the country over £80 billion, and according to the OBR will cost us nearly another £100 billion during the next five years. That is why other countries have been reluctant to follow suit!
As for Hornsea powering 2.5 million homes, maybe he would like to tell us what all of those homes are supposed to do when the wind does not blow:
He talks as if this is all something new!
Crying out for investment? What he means is spending yet more tens of billions increasing grid capacity and connecting out of area wind farms. And all of this will be added to our energy bills. Maybe Mr Marlow should do his job, and investigate just how much this will cost, and then explain to us why he still thinks it is a good idea.
He then makes this particularly fatuous comment:
Clue, Mr Marlow: we are not facing energy rationing because we have not got enough wind farms, but because we have shut nearly all of our reliable coal power stations. Meanwhile, in case he had not noticed, China continues to build coal power. And that is why China still only gets 11% of its power from wind and solar.
Apparently we are all going to be saved though:
100 GW of renewable power? Wow, that must be a lot!!
Perhaps next time though, Mr Marlow should do his sums first. That 100 GW will probably generate about 130 TWh a year; global electricity output is over 28000 TWh, so the extra will amount to less than half a percent. Worse still for the silver lining he talks about, global demand for electricity is rising at a rate of about 700 TWh a year, so increases in renewable capacity won’t even keep up with demand.
But I was particularly intrigued by the claim that “China is outpacing the rest of the world”. His link takes us to this article:
Britain risks becoming in thrall to Beijing due to its growing reliance on renewable energy, a new Lords report has warned.
A House of Lords committee warned that Britain is becoming too dependent on China for the supply of rare earth elements used to manufacture wind turbines and components for solar panels.
China’s control over the global industry creates “new risks” as it leaves Britain at the mercy of Beijing for supplies.
The Lords committee warned that Xi Jinping could use rare earth mineral supplies as “leverage” in negotiations over other issues. Jason Bordoff, of the Columbia Climate School, told the committee China’s dominance in the critical minerals market was a "national security concern" and said the Government should work to reduce the nation’s reliance on Chinese exports.
The Economic Affairs Committee issued the warning in a report on how the Government can secure the nation’s energy supply while delivering on promises to combat climate change.
The committee recommended more investment in the North Sea to deliver domestic supplies of oil and gas and encouraged policy measures to boost private investment in renewables.
In other words, the total opposite of what Mr Marlow is calling for.
Finally he claims:
The IEA’s figures are based on spurious levelised cost estimates.
In reality, the renewable capacity added in the last two years has added to UK energy bills, not reduced them. And he is obviously not aware that the CfDs agreed for renewable projects due to come on stream in the next few years are not legally binding on generators, and that as a consequence energy bills will not fall as a result.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
June 4, 2023 at 05:38AM
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