Ooooops - New windfarm cancelled.

[MikeSharp01]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce848g8l8vro

 

Looks like we won't get this wind farm after all. While I heard again today that the only way to get cheaper electricity is to get away from fossil fuels and I recall that graph referred to last week,  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/675c0ca798302e574b915336/eep-report-2023-2050.pdf, that says we will still be using gas in 2050! How can we square this circle.

[SteamyTea]

33 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce848g8l8vro

 

Looks like we won't get this wind farm after all. While I heard again today that the only way to get cheaper electricity is to get away from fossil fuels and I recall that graph referred to last week,  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/675c0ca798302e574b915336/eep-report-2023-2050.pdf, that says we will still be using gas in 2050! How can we square this circle.

Same (PM on R4?). 

Maybe the reason that they are pulling out is that they know the link between gas prices and electricity prices may be broken, taking away the ridiculous situation that pays some wind farm developers, what is in effect, a bonus.

There may be secondary reasons like grid connection (time and cost).

 

As an aside, as I drive up the M5 near Hinkley Point, I see the new pylons that have been installed, I wonder how many people objected to the erection of them and how it has ruined the view of the pristine countryside.

Edited Wednesday at 17:54 by SteamyTea

[ProDave]

I have just submitted my objection to yet more wind farms close to here.  My objection is on the basis we have enough already and there is no need for more power here.

 

The planning system is disfunctional in that it only considers individual parts like "a wind farm"  That planning application does not even consider HOW the power will get from the hill to the nearest substation. Let alone the high voltage grid additions or upgrades needed to transport the power hundreds of miles because they are building the damned things too far away from where the power is needed.

[MikeSharp01]

17 minutes ago, ProDave said:

there is no need for more power here.

 

The planning system is disfunctional in that it only considers individual parts like "a wind farm"  That planning application does not even consider HOW the power will get from the hill to the nearest substation. Let alone the high voltage grid additions or upgrades needed to transport the power hundreds of miles because they are building the damned things too far away from where the power is needed.

No Apparently you don't need any more up there. According to your man from Octopus the marginal cost of production up there is something silly like 7p kWh but the companies get paid something like 12p kWh just to keep them turned off. Its all madder than a mad things mad thing!

[Mattg4321]

"The only way to get cheaper electricity is to move away from fossil fuels"

 

Just because they keep repeating something ad infinitum doesn't make it true! Nuclear is more expensive than FF and renewables don't currently and may not ever be able to work independently of FF and further can't be relied upon to generate 24/7. You can keep adding wind and solar, but it comes to a situation where it's completely pointless as you still need something for when those renewables are not generating.

 

Germany have added a large amount of wind generation in the last year, yet the amount of generation decreased significantly between 2024 and 2025... because it wasn't windy. 

 

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/weak-winds-eat-generation-capacity-gains-germanys-renewable-fleet-early-2025#:~:text=Renewables-,Clean Energy Wire,research institute ZSW have shown.

[MikeSharp01]

It looks like something has got to give as things are unsustainable. That report from Mr Milibands department in December clearly shows that we will still be burning as much gas as we are today although as a smaller proportion of overall generation. So it follows that gas will still set the price unless it is delinked from doing so. Given we assume that the department knows what it is doing the calculation must be that at some point the link will need to be broken by some means as yet unknown. This brings us back to what @SteamyTea says might be a tactic in the minds of the windfarm builders to push this date back so they can make hay while the wind blows. 

 

[ToughButterCup]

12 hours ago, ProDave said:

...

The planning system is dysfunctional in that it only considers individual parts like "a wind farm" 

...

 

Thats what politics is for .... looking at the broader ( than a 'wind farm' for example ) picture. Dysfunction is an amiable - affliction : it's like @MikeSharp01 says '... something has to give ...' 

You say dysfunction, I say give.

(Oh lets call the whole thing off : like @SteamyTea suggests)

[MikeSharp01]

Time we started a bit of gentle lobbying perhaps. Here is a note I have just sent to the BBC Today programme to ask them to ask an appropriate minister.

 

 

 

"Here is a question you might like ask of an appropriate minister if they continue to say that the only route to cheaper electricity is to increase renewable generation. While I agree we should be increasing renewable generation there is a problem lurking at the core of this statement from government. The chart above is from this document (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/675c0ca798302e574b915336/eep-report-2023-2050.pdf) published in December 2024 by Ed Miliband's department. It clearly shows that we will be using as much gas in 2050 as we are using now to generate electricity despite a massive increase in renewables. This means that unless the link between the gas price and the electricity price is broken the price for electricity will still be set by Gas. How does the minister square this circle? If we are going to delink why don't we do it now - perhaps it is because the renewable generators are getting a great price for their electricity. If we are not delinking how will the electricity prices not be tied back to a fossil fuel with all that entails. "

 

Let's see if anything comes of it.

[ProDave]

^^^  Oh GOOD.  In just 5 years, we are going to stop building ANY more wind farms.  We just have to fight off the proposals until then.  By which time the amount of renewables generated will flatten out.

 

Planning to get roughly 1/4 of your electricity from "imports" in the long term seems a bad plan for energy security.