Chasing “green” fantasies about renewable energy are proving to be among the most profligate of all the misguided policies which build on alarmist scenarios. Renewable energy has its place but it is the “green” belief that it could replace fossil fuels which has proven to be nonsense. And what is worse is that the pursuit of “low carbon” energy serves no purpose whatsoever. It is just waste which has cost Europe many millions of jobs and has unnecessarily prolonged the recession. Perhaps as many as 15 million jobs in Europe have been “lost” based on the growth that has been suppressed by high energy prices.
Financial Times:
RWE npower became the first of the big six power suppliers publicly to warn that the government’s green policies will cost consumers more, saying energy bills would rise by more than 19 per cent by the end of the decade.A household’s energy bill will rise from £1,247 today to £1,487 by 2020 in real terms – not taking into account inflationary increases – if usage remains static, npower warns in a report. Costs caused by government policies such as subsidies for new wind farms and energy efficiency schemes will be the main driver, adding £144, it claims.
…. The report finds that the costs of upgrading Britain’s ageing gas and electricity networks would be the next biggest driver of bills, adding £114, while the costs of the nationwide roll-out of “smart meters” that send automatic meter readings back to suppliers will add £24.
Profits will account for £71, or just under 5pc, of the bill by 2020, up £12 from today, but a significant jump from £18 in 2007.
The k2p blog 