The high cost of Ed Miliband’s ‘cheap’ renewable energy |
First the good news. Some commercial users may be enjoying free electricity at some point this summer – or better still, they may even be paid to consume it. Now the not so good news: at other times it will mean us all having to pay even more for our electricity than we already do. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) – the nationalised body which manages the grid in Britain – is reported to be drawing up emergency plans in case it becomes too sunny. Thanks to Ed Miliband, there is now so much installed wind and solar capacity that in sunny and windy conditions it threatens to overload the grid.
Here is the problem. Currently, the UK has 32 gigawatts of installed wind capacity and 22 gigawatts of installed solar capacity. Of course, wind and solar hardly ever run at capacity because the country is not always windy and bathed in sunshine, but the renewables capacity has reached the stage at which it could theoretically overload the grid. Averaged over the year, Britain uses around 37 gigawatts of power, but on summer afternoons, when few people have any need for heating or lighting, this can fall appreciably.........