Telegraph Writer Thinks UK will soon be An ‘Energy Powerhouse’
I seriously think Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (pictured) needs to retire to his French farmhouse. He really has lost the plot now!
On August 4th, The Telegraph published an article with the headline ‘Britain will soon be Europe’s energy powerhouse‘.
The article states:
Cast forward five to 10 years and Britain will be the only major country in Europe with a flourishing energy system across the whole technology spectrum.
The prevailing – dated – narrative of this country as the energy sick man of Europe will be turned on its head. Britain will be able to meet its core internal needs for both power and fuel from its own territorial sources, with enough joules to spare for rising energy exports to the European market.
Without quite realising it, Britain is moving towards a pragmatic “anything that does the job” regime akin to Xi Jinping’s China, albeit with a different carbon mix.
There is something to like for both sides of the culture war: the Right gets nuclear, oil and gas while the Left gets wind, solar, energy storage and better new buildings. Techies get digital kit, smart shifting, virtual power plants (yes, really), AI and the clever stuff at which Britain excels. Look how Kraken Technologies is conquering the world.
The National Energy System Operator (Neso) says the country will become “a net exporter of electricity across the year” by 2030, rapidly reversing the current large deficit.
Britain will be the electricity backbone of north-west Europe by 2035. Its domestic power prices will converge with those of France and substantially undercut Germany, Italy or Poland.
Let’s ignore the fact that he has spent years attacking North Sea oil and gas. Even if we maximise production, we will never be a net exporter.
Then we come to nuclear power.
We will need every MWh that Hinkley Point produces ourselves. The current strike price for Hinkley is £130.79/MWh. But what AEP has not worked out is that when we have surplus power to export, the Continent will also be awash with wind or solar power.
As a consequence, we will have to virtually give the stuff away. NESO’s projections for 2030 suggested the average export price would be £40/MWh.
It does not take a genius that exporting at a loss is not a very good idea!
The same, of course, applies to wind and solar power. Strike prices for solar in AR7 currently stand at £68.94/MWh, with offshore wind set at £97.05/MWh.
We might end up being a “net exporter of electricity”, but energy users in the UK will be worse off as a result!
It is far more likely the UK will be the blackout capital of Europe.
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