MANY of us in Scotland would argue that Brexit was the worst economic self-harm we have inflicted on ourselves in our lifetime. Yet Ed Miliband’s plan to decarbonise the electricity system by 2030 could run close, with experts in the industry forecasting the first power cuts in 2028. The green zealot doesn’t seem to know how to reach net zero.Was it yet another General Election headline grabber?
With the UK’s carbon emissions less than 1% of the world’s, he went with Sir Keir Starmer to Baku. It was easier to grandstand on the world stage given Biden, Xi, Putin, Modi, von der Leyen, Macron and Scholz were not there. Starmer told the conference we will lead the world (we won’t) but there was no more mention of our energy bills coming down by £300.
We are paying the highest prices in the world to finance the subsidies for renewable energy. (The OBR puts the figure at £12 billion this year). During the election, Miliband said “Great British Energy” would mop up the 97,000 jobs lost in the oil and gas industries, but the Aberdeen-based firm, with 500 employees, is an investment firm.
Tens of billions will be required in wind turbines and solar panels, more again to build pylons and cables for a national grid which will need to be reconfigured to carry renewables, which are intermittent and unreliable. Scotland’s onshore and offshore wind farms like Viking and Beatrice will take in billions in subsidies as the grid cannot transmit the required energy nor store it.
It was never designed to shift energy from wind and solar farms, often in the North Sea and Highlands. Yet we must double onshore wind capacity, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore, says Miliband, or “we will be at the mercy of international gas markets controlled by dictators”.
Today wind and solar power account for 34% of UK energy. It may hit 44% by 2030. It will take at least 15 years to link the wind farms.
The Royal Society report said UK energy storage requires 1,000 times more capacity than we have now. Scotland has four storage reservoirs. Labour, who have reneged on saving Grangemouth, are finding billions for carbon-capture hubs in northern England but Peterhead is ignored.
As for nuclear, Hinckley C and Sizewell C and the new smaller ones will not be online in 2030.
Starmer can only meet the tough decarbonisation targets he set in Baku if we switch to expensive electric cars and heat pumps, both of which have seen sales slump as the UK Government is patently not taking the public with them.
John V Lloyd
Fife
0 Comments