Poor Energy Planning

An interesting letter from Tony Lodge, of the Centre for Policy Studies, appeared in the 'Daily Telegraph' on 26 Apr 11.

In the letter, he mentions that Huw Irranca-Davies, the shadow energy minister, recently criticised the present government's efforts in energy policy. (letter to DT, 19 Apr)

However, under Labour, energy ministers failed to take decisions which could have secured Britain's energy supply. The last government did not balance the electricity generating sector. It did not approve carbon-capture coal plants (-the technology does not exist - Ed) and it did not make a start on new nuclear power.

During the Labour government's period of office, 30,000 MW of gas-fired power stations were approved. No alternative baseload plant (clean coal(sic), oil or nuclear went ahead. Nor did the government secure opt-outs from the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive which will close a third of British coal fired power stations and all peak-load oil stations by by 2016.



ND comment: ....There is no room for optimism in the energy sector. The construction of new nuclear stations has still not begun, and now we have the additional cost of replacing a serviceable generating system by one which is not as reliable, at a cost of £200 billion, in the name of 'decarbonising' the economy.

The cost of replacing our present generating system with an inferior one is easily worked out:

there are about 25 million households in Britain.

The sum is therefore £200,000,000,000 / 25,000,000

which means £8,000 per household.

That won't pay for your energy, it's just the price of paying for the change.

Your energy bills will be on top of that.

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