Energy prices in Devon and Cornwall to double - warning
The South West faces a doubling of electricity bills as Government incentives to produce clean energy drive up the price of burning fossil fuels.
Pensioner groups say a disproportionate number of people in the region are elderly and in fuel poverty and predict that large rises will add an "extra burden" and cause serious hardship.
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Campaigners against wind farms say a new green tax on polluting energy from gas and coal-fired power stations will make turbines far more profitable for investors at the expense of consumers.
And renewable energy experts in the South West admit the prospect of rising bills as part of increased investment is a "tough" point to sell – but warn that relying on imported energy leaves us exposed to even more dramatic hikes in the future.
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Merlin Hyman, chief executive of industry body RegenSW, said "most people" in the industry expect energy prices to "double in the next few years".
"At the moment when we pay our bill we are not paying for the fact that our electricity is polluting the world," he added. "We are dependent on imported power from fossil fuel and investing in renewable energy will put up bills but they will go up less than if we didn't," he added.
"It is a tough point to sell and get across but if you think about it, it is common sense, because fossil fuels are a limited resource."
Anti-wind power group the Renewable Energy Foundation, has highlighted a briefing document on the wind industry written for investors as evidence of a bonanza from the new tax.
In the face of concerted opposition to the proliferation of wind turbines in the region, Mr Hyman has cautioned it was important to remember that the proposed disincentive to polluters would not affect small scale wind farms – below around 5megawatts (MW) – or new projects after implementation in 2014.
He said the new regime would see a Government "contract for difference" which would guarantee the price paid to generators.
Nevertheless the REF says financiers are looking to invest up to £260 million in a new energy fund, Greencoat UK Wind, which is planning to buy stakes in six existing big wind farms around the UK.
The Government, through the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), has committed £50million to the Greencoat fund to underpin the scheme.
A BIS spokesman said it was investing "to help catalyse the additional private sector capital required" to increase investment in renewable energy.
Richard Nourse, managing partner at Greencoat Capital, which will manage the fund, said Greencoat UK Wind offers investors the prospect of a "6% dividend yield" expected to increase in line with inflation.
Dr John Constable, director of the Renewable Energy Foundation, a charity which has highlighted the cost of wind farms, said: "Wind power is already over-subsidised, so it is simply astonishing that government should calmly and, one suspects, incompetently spread another generous layer of jam on the revenue of existing wind farms."
Conservative MP Geoffrey Cox, whose Torridge and West Devon constituency has seen dozens of campaigns spring up against turbines, said the Government had failed to "get the balance" right.
"What we need is a good diverse mix of energy – what we have got is an extremely rash move towards technologies such as wind which are discredited and outdated," he added. "We are not going to replace coal-fired power stations with wind – what we should have done is take sensible decisions to start constructing nuclear power, which the UK simply cannot do without."
Age UK estimates that there are approximately 3.5 million people aged over 60 in fuel poverty in the UK, around half of all fuel poor households.
Colin Fletcher, chief executive in Devon, said the end of the state-funded efficiency drive, Warm Front, and large rises in bills over five years meant "increasing concern for older people".
"The issue is larger for the South West, with a higher proportion of older people than many other areas of the UK," he added. "Further rises will be a huge burden on older people and will cause serious hardship for many."
5 Comments
by emurfitt
Wednesday, March 27 2013, 11:23PM
“Hi again John,
I couldn't agree more about our three main parties letting the country down. A look at the plight of the poor or the economy confirms that. Going Green is the only way to save the environment, though, with its burgeoning human population. The planet supports us all. If we destroy it, nobody has anything.
Would you want to travel in an aircraft where the other passengers are allowed to dismantle it rivet by rivet as you go? The planet is like an aircraft. Everyone on it has a responsibility to keep it in tact and healthy. There needs to be a sense of community to do this. I don't have your technical expertise to say how we should be Green, only that we should be Green.
The EU is a scape goat for what our own greedy, self-interested national politicians are doing to the UK economy. I would argue that Britain cannot govern itself because it's been crippled by greed and right-wing ideology. There is no choice when it comes to voting. All the main parties represent the rich elite because they all belong to the rich elite - or aspire to it. That includes UKIP. I say get rid of the rich elite because we can't afford them. Our only hope is with Europe with its enlightened legislation protecting workers, women, basic freedoms, the environment etc. UKIP would destroy all that.
Next month when the new tax year begins, UK multi-millionaires will get a tax break that will make them over £100,000 a year better off. Meanwhile, the poorest people are losing their homes, queuing at food banks, branded as 'scroungers' for what they cannot help, freezing to death... the list is endless. This is where the real social evil lies - deliberately engineered social inequality by greedy, elitist politicians grabbing more than they need for themselves. It would be madness to throw away the Human Rights Act etc in a climate of such inequality. Right-wing UKIP is not a solution but part of the problem.
If you want a protest vote, better to consider MK or the Greens, in my view. Sliding to the Right is tempting in a recession because it offers a 'quick fix' and a scape goat. Unfortunately, quick fixes rarely work and tend to be dangerous.
The debate needs to be had, though and I, for one, welcome your interesting contribution.”
by johndavies
Wednesday, March 27 2013, 6:13PM
“Emurfitt you say-
"Don't be brainwashed by greedy right-wing politicians and newspapers. They don't care about ordinary people."
I totally agree - But that's exactly what we have now !
The greedy LibLabCon men party with their 'green agenda' are robbing us blind. While they chase the green lo-carbon dream.
I'd prefer to keep politics out of science, technology & engineering, but the politicians are ruining our country for ideological idiocy …& the cash.
Blair Brown Cameron Clegg Davey Gummer Huhne Millaband Yeo etc. are 'all in it together'.
We have to break this magic roundabout of government cartels.
UKIP would never be able to form a government, but with a good showing they could break the monopoly (& monotony) of party politics.
Do you know what a low carbon economy looks like?...
…Romania, Sudan, North Korea,
Thanks, but no thanks.”
by emurfitt
Wednesday, March 27 2013, 2:44PM
“I urge people not to trust UKIP! They are disaffected right-wing tories with their own agenda. Cornwall, in particular, needs EU funding. We've had tens of millions of pounds from the EU - money we would never have seen without EU membership.
The EU is currently paying for superfast broadband across Cornwall. Cornish jobs depend on EU funding. We all need the Human Rights Act. The British helped to draft it, after all. The European Convention on Human Rights was created (with a lot of British help) after World War 2 to prevent a repeat of those horrors. Don't be brainwashed by greedy right-wing politicians and newspapers. They don't care about ordinary people.”
by johndavies
Wednesday, March 27 2013, 1:20PM
“Meanwhile the subsidy farmers keep raking it in !!
For a flavour of CASH generated by windfarms per mth, (More than 50% is subsidy's.) see- http://tinyurl.com/cgmq86d
( See this List of some (700ish) UK windfarms – includes Generation payments, OFGEM ROC payments + Capacity factors, Outputs, Graphs, Maps. - http://tinyurl.com/akxs7yp )
The wind policy has succeeded in doing two things: ensuring that we have rapidly escalating electricity prices and penalising UK industry with Green taxes and high energy costs. If you doubt that, read the following government report: ICF International, for the Department of Business Innovation & Skills (BIS), 'An International Comparison of Energy and Climate Change Policies Impacting Energy Intensive Industries in Selected Countries' (11 July 2012):
https://http://tinyurl.com/d9qo4zp
Wind turbines are not an appropriate technology for supplying grid systems because of intermittency & the large backup (spinning reserve) required. Because the intermittency of wind brings a huge financial penalty Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Holland, have all cut back on wind installations & are now building gas & coal stations (worryingly Germany is going for brown coal ).
Note:-
As at July 2012, UK companies own just –
12% of offshore wind
37% of on land wind.
74% of ALL British Electricity Generating is foreign owned.!!
It seems that UKIP are the only party with any sort of coherent energy policy, (see their document 'Keeping the lights on' - http://tinyurl.com/aj8or2y )
and they have been consistent & forthright in their condemnation of subsidised wind & solar.
All the other parties have fully embraced the idea of subsidised wind & solar & the crippling 'green taxation' that drives the present flawed system”
by emurfitt
Friday, March 22 2013, 11:59PM
“Not just elderly people. Funny how disabled, sick, single, low paid, unemployed and young people are always forgotten in these debates. The people most demonized by this right-wing Government.
Where's the revolution?”