Sunday
Oct132013
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Energy wave in the Telegraph
Oct 13, 2013 Energy: grid ;)
Not now, can't you see we're saving the planet?The cost of energy is all over the Telegraph this morning.
First up, Iain Martin outlines the whole sorry history of Britian's energy policy over the last twenty years. In the same outlet, Booker reviews the week's developments, and reiterates the point that the decision to balance energy supply with diesel generators is going to be very expensive indeed. Meanwhile, Robert Colvile and the paper's cartoonist manage to find something to laugh about.
This will of course have precisely no impact on the thinking of Ed Davey, Greg Barker and the other grandees in DECC.
Reader Comments (58)
eSmiff
Using the chart posted by Lapogus, which goes back to 2004, the wholesale price of gas has been remarkably stable since 2005. There's a peak in 2008 and an equal trough in 2009 the price today is virtually the same as July 2005. The period 2004-2005 did see an increase but the 2004 price was almost matched in 2009.
Do you have a reference for the period 1998 to 2004 to extend the comparison?
Apart from the good points made by Albert and Ruth, the whole concept of percentages provided by "renewables" is dishonest because of intermittency. It is like saying that mangoes comprise X% of the national diet per annum, even though they are only available for a couple of months of the year, and are very expensive, as though that is some sort of virtue. So what? Would we miss them if they were gone forever?
SandyS - I have just left the following comment on the Consistent Industrial Policy thread, and suggest we move there?
eSmiff / SandyS - the wiki graph is US prices and we are looking for UK. It also stops at 2005 so doesn't show the recent and dramatic decline in the US price thanks to their shale fracking. (If only we were permitted to follow suit). I found a chart which shows European, US and Japanese gas prices from 1995 to 2012, and assume it is wholesale. [Source page - http://www.c2es.org/publications/looming-natural-gas-transition-united-states ]. So it looks like the EU price has steadily increased from 2000 to a peak in 2008, then fell and has stabilised for the last 5 years (contrary to Ed Davey's statement on the BBC that it had doubled in the last 5 years).
Davey has conveniently got mixed up between DECC's forecast of what Gas prices would do and reality, to make their policy on renewables look not as bad as it really will be they forecast big increases in Fossil fuel prices hence the claim that over the years renewables would only add £200 to a homes energy bill but.
Coal prices have dropped as surplus US coal is dumped on the world markets. This is coal displaced by even cheaper US Gas prices.
Gas prices have been stable recently after some movement.
Gas prices will drop as soon as the US can start exporting Gas eg when the port is finished.
I am amazed that Ed Davey seems to have got away with the bogus percentages (4,16 & 50) that he trotted out on the Andrew Marr show. If we let a government minister get away with that we can hardly complain when the NHS fiddles its mortality statistics, etc.
Roger Longstaff
I am amazed that your amazed. Expect nothing less than calculated mendacity from the BBC on anything connected with economics in general and energy economics especially in particular.
The Mail on Sunday yesterday (13/10/2013) produced a very useful article which cut through the morass and explained the main energy levies in graphic detail for the average reader. Comment by Dr Benny Peiser of the GWPF was included as well:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2456760/Red-Eds-great-green-obsession--real-reason-YOUR-gone-roof-The-hidden-subsidies-household-pays-year-thanks-Milibands-laws.html
Johanna,
I think nobody would miss the windmills if they were gone forever....excepting the subsidy sponges.