Know why your fuel bills are soaring? 20 years of ‘renewables’ lies, says John Constable

Today’s rapidly rising household electricity bills are a consequence of unrealistic energy and climate policies that forced us to use low quality and unreliable renewable energy, giving the illusion of diversity and security, while discouraging the high-quality sources such as coal, nuclear, and gas that provide a truly robust and secure supply. This has left the UK critically dependent on one high quality fuel alone, natural gas, much of which now has to be imported. It really is that simple, and with the Ukraine war, those chickens have come home to roost.

How did this happen? And how can we have an energy cost crisis caused by imports when we have so much so-called “home grown” renewable energy on the system.

The answer is that the Government’s hugely expensive renewables policy –£50 billion in total since 2002 and rising at the rate of about £10 billion a year – has actually caused the problem, wrecking our fuel diversity by driving coal off the system and resulting in a nuclear decline.

But because renewables such as wind and solar are unreliable they contribute nothing to security of supply, the policies have put the whole burden of system reliability on natural gas, the domestic production of which has been actively suppressed by the UK Government.

At the heart of this problem is the fact that wind and solar are of very low physical quality (for those that care, it has high entropy), changing in strength uncontrollably over time, with wind in particular varying hugely over all timescales from seconds and minutes to years and even decades.

Physically speaking that means it is a very disordered and chaotic source of energy that is hard to predict

Consequently, although wind and solar now account for about 16 percent of our electricity, and all renewables including tree-burning biomass about 40 percent of our electricity, the electricity system as a whole has become critically dependent on natural gas to guarantee security of supply.

Coal has been closed own (and even blown up by Alok Sharma, the former Secretary of State for the Department of Business), and the fleet of nuclear power stations has declined, and gas has been left to hold the fort.

Of course, we have all been told that there are huge reductions in the cost of electricity from wind turbines and solar panels, but there is a lot of smoke about, and one or two mirrors too.

The truth, which we can see in audited financial statements, is that the lifetime productivity of wind and solar remains low at best and capital costs to build wind and solar remain very high while operational costs, for offshore wind for example, are rising.

However, Government ministers are ignorant of these facts and have been completely taken in by the falling cost spin put out by the industry.

As a result of these errors the UK has become extremely exposed to surges in the gas price caused by external emergencies, such as the invasion of Ukraine.

But if it hadn’t been Ukraine it would have been some other unexpected event, a massive rise in Chinese gas demand for example, or a huge pipeline accident in Europe.

Our gas-dependent renewables policy was an accident waiting to happen, and a price crisis all but certain at some point.

Without the climate policies, and the overcommitment to wind and solar, we would have a more diverse fuel supply, including modern high-efficiency and lower-emitting coal as well as more nuclear, meaning that we could increase use of those fuels and reduce gas to contain costs to consumers in times of emergency.

Even our existing gas generators would be newer and more efficient, further protecting us against the fuel cost.

Sadly, that isn’t where we are. Instead, we have an energy crisis that is so severe that we have to put our longer-term goal of reducing emissions on hold while we fix the current problems and rethink our path to a lower carbon future

The renewables error, which started with Mr Blair and has been endorsed by every subsequent Prime Minster, has cost us 20 years of progress on climate change and an absolute fortune on the national energy bill.

Dr John Constable is Director of the Renewable Energy Foundation