Renewable energy executives infuriated.

From the article @ Energy Fair:

THE business minister Michael Fallon has infuriated renewable energy executives after “inviting” them to lobby Brussels on behalf of the government’s deal to underwrite nuclear power with billions of pounds in subsidies.

Hinkley’s £16bn price tag would make it the most expensive power plant in the world. Analysts reckon that EDF, 84% owned by the French state, will collect at least £90bn from the project.

Editors Comments: The effects of government subsidies for new nuclear power plants is devastating for our renewable energy future. All these illegal subsidies could be used to support the renewable energy systems we must have.

Renewable Energy Loses To Dirty Old Designs

From FlicWiltshire:

Today’s comments by Michael Fallon that the Tories will scrap subsidies for future onshore wind developments if they win the next election are ‘interesting’.

It begs the question: if the Tories are willing to remove subsidies for a proven low carbon, low cost solution to the UK’s future energy needs, are they also prepared to withdraw subsidies for fossil fuels, too? Subsidies which, incidentally, are much greater than those which apply to the various forms of renewable energy such as wind, solar and biomass.

Energy Minister, Michael Fallon’s assertion feels much more like political pre-election manoeuvring rather than a desire to address the longer-term realities of climate change. Have the Tories actually read the latest report from the International Panel of climate change? It’s pretty unequivocal, as is the view of the government’s own chief scientific adviser, Sir Mark Walport.

Earlier this month, the Royal Academy of Engineering commented that limiting onshore wind development would mean we’d have to rely on more expensive technologies to keep the lights on, which in turn, would mean increasing our dependency on costly fossil fuel imports and exposure to price hikes. It would also add to customers’ energy bills.

Renewable Energy has 2/3 majority support

 

There are also wider economic implications here. Research by the Renewable Energy Association and Innovas has shown that the UK’s £12.5 billion renewables industry currently supports more than  110,000 jobs across the supply chain, a figure which could rise to 400,000 by 2020. Onshore wind again currently accounts for almost 19,000 jobs in the UK, with the potential for thousands more over the next decade.

Editor note: Our ‘greenest government ever’ continues to cut funding for renewable technologies. At the same time our government is trying to illegally fund the construction of a new nuclear power plant that will be the most expensive in history. Don’t forget that the Hinkley C project still has over 700 design faults that have not been resolved.

This same EPR reactor is currently under construction in France and Finland.

Doubt about the dodgy deal for Hinkley

From the article @ Energy Fair:

This month Fallon took the extraordinary step of drafting in the renewables industry, which is reeling from a series of subsidy cuts to technologies such as biomass and offshore wind. He gathered a group of top executives at a meeting in Westminster to urge them to make supportive submissions to the Brussels consultation.

He also sent a letter, seen by The Sunday Times, highlighting the national importance of Hinkley. Fallon adds that it is “dependent on a positive state aid decision from the European Commission”, imploring executives to “support our case” by writing to Brussels.

It’s worth remembering that recent independent research revealed that two thirds of voters back onshore wind and voters of all parties prefer it as a neighbour to fossil fuel technologies like shale gas.

Torries live in cloud cockoo-land

One industry source said: “The renewables industry is somewhere between bemused and appalled that Michael Fallon has asked them to lobby for Hinkley Point’s [subsidy]. He is living in cloud-cuckoo-land.”