The very legal and regulatory obstacles the Greens erected and deployed against fossil fuel companies they were opposed to are now coming back full circle.
via CFACT
October 31, 2024 at 02:45AM
Unbeknownst to taxpayers and power consumers, the wind industry has engineered the most outrageous raft of subsidies, mostly hidden and all massively generous. These include being paid hundreds of $millions to produce nothing at all, with what are called “constraint payments”.
In Britain, taxpayers have stumped up £1 billion in constraint payments to wind power outfits over the last five years.
Under that aspect of the scam, by 2030, wind power outfits across the UK (principally in Scotland) are predicted to pocket £3 billion a year for simply doing nothing at all.
Then there’s the “Contracts for Difference” scam. Which guarantees a fixed price to wind power outfits, with the difference picked up by, you know who. As David Turner details below, the burden born by unwitting taxpayers is already staggering, and can only get worse.
Record August CfD Subsidies
Substack
David Turner
29 September 2024
Introduction
The Low Carbon Contract Company (LCCC) manage the Contracts for Difference (CfD) subsidy scheme and publish data to show how much it costs us. The data is usually published about ten days in arrears and sometimes gets adjusted. Now we have the full data for August 2024 and it has settled down enough for some reasonable analysis.
Overall Subsidy Levels Rising
The headline is that overall CfD subsidies rose sharply in August 2024 to a total of £237m, the third highest total on record and by far the highest level for the month of August (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 – Overall CfD Subsides by Month and Technology (£)
The total is up £84.2m from July’s total. The main driver of the increase is offshore wind which is up £74.5m from a month ago. This August’s total is also up £123.8m from August 2023. Since August last year, offshore wind subsidies are up £72.3m, biomass conversion £35m, biomass with CHP up £10.2m, onshore wind £5.1m.
There are several factors driving the increase in subsidy since last year. First and most obvious is that more wind farms have now activated their CfDs since last year. Moray East and Hornsea Project 2 offshore projects came online earlier this year as did the Sneddon onshore wind farm. Moreover, the CfD part of Drax biomass plant was not used at all last August but attracted £25.6m in subsidy in August 2024.
Load Factors
However, the number of turbines claiming subsidy is not the only driver of increased subsidy. Load factors are also up. This means that both onshore and offshore wind farms produced closer to their theoretical maximum during the month (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 – Calculated Load Factor by Month for Active Windfarms (%)
Using the nameplate capacity recorded by LCCC for each installation, we can calculate the load factor for each project and aggregate it by technology. In August 2024, CfD-funded offshore windfarms achieved a load factor of 34.7%, the third highest August on record, the highest since August 2020 and up three percentage points since last year. Onshore wind achieved 24.9%, the second highest August load factor on record and up from 16.7% last year.
More wind means more generation and other things being equal, more generation means more subsidy.
Subsidy per MWh
The other things that drive the levels of subsidy are the CfD strike prices and the reference price used to calculate the subsidy level. For offshore wind, the weighted average strike price has fallen ~£23/MWh from about £178/MWh in August 2023 to £155/MWh this year. This is because of the aforementioned addition of Moray East and Hornsea Project 2 which both have lower strike prices than the earlier offshore wind farms. The strike prices for onshore wind are up a few pounds from last year to £113/MWh and solar is up £4 to £110/MWh.
However, the Intermittent Market Reference Price (IMRP) which is used as the baseline for the price that renewable electricity was sold for in the market is down significantly on last year. The average IMRP, weighted by generation, has fallen about £25/MWh from £76/MWh in August 2023 to about £51/MWh in August 2024.
The subsidy per MWh is calculated as the difference between the strike price and the IMRP. The upshot is that the subsidy per MWh for offshore wind is up a bit since last year and is up sharply for onshore wind and for solar power (see Figure 3).
Figure 3 – Subsidy per MWh by Technology (£ per MWh)
Gas prices are lower this year than they were last, so that explains some of the reduction in IMRP, because gas often sets the market rate of electricity. However, adding more uncontrolled renewable generation can also affect the IMRP. There were two days in August when the weighted IMRP for offshore wind fell below £20/MWh and three occasions when the weighted IMRP for solar fell below £10/MWh. Provided the price stays positive, this does not matter to the generators, they just make up the difference with extra subsidies. If the price goes negative for a time, then some wind farms are not paid curtailment fees.
Conclusion
The addition of the newer, cheaper offshore wind farms has not had a significant impact on the subsidy per MWh. The reduction in average strike price has been overwhelmed by a combination of the indexation upwards in April and cheaper gas prices since last year. Even if gas prices stay at the current elevated levels, we are unlikely to see a significant reduction in the subsidy per MWh, because increased generation from renewables pushes down the IMRP, thus increasing subsidies. For the generators it is heads they win, tails the consumer loses. We can expect more record subsidies between now and February 2025 as the seasonal load factors creep back up and Drax is kept running to replace our last remaining coal plant which shuts shortly.
Substack
via STOP THESE THINGS
October 31, 2024 at 01:31AM
“If given a second term, I have no doubt you will pursue and achieve numerous additional victories for the American people, including reducing the size and influence of the federal government in our daily lives, maintaining our status as the number one energy producer in the world, reducing the involvement of the federal government in energy markets, and preserving our ability to choose the types of cars and trucks that best suit our needs. In other words, your energy agenda will return those decisions to consumers, families, and businesses.” – Tom Pyle, American Energy Alliance (below)
The American Energy Alliance is the advocacy arm of the Institute for Energy Research, a principled educational nonprofit in favor of voluntary transactions between consenting adults, which means a free market in energy anchored on private property rights and the rule of law. Classical liberalism is the worldview of IER/AEA.
The September 5, 2024, letter of endorsement from AEA president Tom Pyle to Donald Trump follows:
Dear President Trump:
On behalf of the American Energy Alliance (AEA), the country’s premier pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer, and free-market energy organization, I am proud to endorse your candidacy for President of the United States.
Under your leadership, the United States became the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas, greatly enhancing our energy security in the process. You kept energy prices low, which helped the poor, the elderly, those on fixed incomes, and local institutions like schools and hospitals. As promised, you also reduced duplicative regulatory burdens and helped save American families thousands of dollars each year in needless regulatory costs.
This is in stark contrast to your opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has supported policies that restrict energy production and increase costs, aligning with wealthy environmental interests and bureaucrats in Washington. Her approach, influenced by the Green New Deal, is harmful to working and middle-class Americans.
If given a second term, I have no doubt you will pursue and achieve numerous additional victories for the American people, including reducing the size and influence of the federal government in our daily lives, maintaining our status as the number one energy producer in the world, reducing the involvement of the federal government in energy markets, and preserving our ability to choose the types of cars and trucks that best suit our needs. In other words, your energy agenda will return those decisions to consumers, families, and businesses.
For all of these reasons, and many more, I am proud to announce AEA’s endorsement of Donald J. Trump for reelection and look forward to four more years of putting America’s energy interests first
Comment: IER is scholarly and non-partisan, which is the approach of this website. I have reviewed many energy/climate platforms in the current election, not only Trump’s. On the Left: Democrat Party, Green Party, Cornel West for President, and The Party For Socialism and Liberation. On the free-market side, GOP Platform, Libertarian Party, American Petroleum Institute, Heritage Foundation/Agenda 25, and America First Policy Institute.
The criteria for endorsement is energy freedom, a maximal separation of government and energy (oil, gas, coal, nuclear, renewables, electricity). This begins but does not end with Donald Trump. The U.S. Department of Energy should be abolished with its non-civilian functions transferred to other agencies for separate scrutiny. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should be abolished with enabling legislation (Federal Power Act of 1935; Federal Natural Gas Act of 1938) repealed. The energy functions within the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should be ended with enabling legislation such as the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act repealed,
New subsidies for favored energies should not be proposed or enacted under a Trump Administration. No special tax breaks for oil, gas, coal, and LNG. No subsidies for existing or new nuclear capacity. Eliminate subsidies, do not add to them. Fair field, no favor; a free, unhampered market for all.
The post Trump for President: AEA Endorsement appeared first on Master Resource.
via Master Resource
October 31, 2024 at 01:07AM
By P Gosselin on 30. October 2024
After its politically driven foray into electric vehicles, Volkswagen is facing significant financial challenges…plans to close at least three of its German factories…unprecedented move in the company’s history…. tens of thousands of jobs will be lost!
Anti-auto green party activist, liberal arts college-dropout on the supervisory board!
The news for VW is real bad, and now the powerful IG Metall engineering and metal workers’ union is already hinting at strikes to prevent the cuts. Additionally, the company is looking to cut more than $4.3 billion in costs
Hat-tip: Aktienmitkopf.
Misguided foray into electric vehicles
But don’t start feeling sorry for VW. The problems are largely self-made by incompetent managers and politicians.
Firstly, the German state of Lower Saxony, where VW is headquartered in Wolfsburg, owns approximately 20% of Volkswagen. Then, secondly, in the late 2010s, VW began its earnest push into electric vehicle production with the introduction of its ID family of electric cars. The increased focus on electric vehicles was largely politically driven by factors like increasingly stringent emissions standards and overly optimistic future demand for electric vehicles.
EV car sales stall, plant closure
However, VW electric vehicle sales have since taken a turn for the worst. EVs aren’t popular in Germany. Their sales in the first half of 2024 were approximately 317,200 units worldwide, lower than the same period in 2023 (321,600 EVs). The future of EV sales now looks bleak: Volkswagen just announced the closure of its Audi Brussels plant in Belgium, which primarily produces electric vehicles. This decision comes due to lower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles and is expected to take effect in February 2025.
Green Party anti-auto activist, college dropout on VW supervisory board!
And if you think VW being owned by a green-leaning state is already problematic for the management of the company, take a look at who sits on the company’s supervisory board: Julia Willie Hamburg, a German politician from Alliance 90/The Greens, Ms. Hamburg also serves as the Deputy Minister-President of Lower Saxony and the State Minister for Education and Culture.
Now let’s look at her qualifications: According to her resume, Ms. Hamburg was educated in Hanover where she studied political science, German philology, and then studied philosophy at the University of Göttingen.
She dropped out of all her studies without a degree. Moreover, she’s an anti-car activist who travels by bicycle. She has neither industrial management experience, financial expertise nor an inkling of automotive engineering. That folks, is one of the top executives at VW. No joke!
So, don’t be surprised if VW gets its clock cleaned by the competition over the next few years.
via Watts Up With That?
October 31, 2024 at 12:05AM
