Tag Archives: electricity costs

British battery plants given cheap power to break dependence on China

Subsidised energy costs to make onshore production of key minerals more viable.

British battery metal refiners and electric car gigafactories are being handed cheap power deals by the Government as part of a battle to cut the West’s dependence on China. 

Companies will get the energy relief from next month with the aim being to boost domestic production of key minerals needed for wind turbines, electric cars and defence technologies, officials and executives say.

China has an iron grip on global refining, handling about 70pc of the world’s cobalt, 70pc of nickel, 60pc of battery-grade lithium and as much as 90pc for some rare earth elements. The Telegraph has the story.

But ministers want at least some of this production to be “onshored” in the UK in future, amid broader western fears that Beijing could threaten supplies during a geopolitical crisis. 

With high electricity costs seen as a major barrier, however, insiders said the new measures are designed to make Britain more competitive internationally. Officials also want to deter so-called carbon leakage, where goods are made abroad using more polluting processes and then simply imported here. 

It is understood that critical mineral refiners and battery factories are among those set to benefit from the relief, with the promise of the subsidies helping to seal significant investments.

One source familiar with the schemes said: “Helping to level the playing field on energy costs, and the added advantage of supplying green power for these new industries, really does start to shift the balance.”

One businessman behind two refinery operators in the North East said the subsidies had helped to ensure his development were viable.

Paul Atherley, chairman of Tees Valley Lithium and Pensana, which are building plants in Teesside and Humberside respectively, said the changes will cut the price his companies pay for energy from a quarterly average of 19 pence per kilowatt hour (kWh) to “single digits” in September.

Mr Atherley said: “The Government is keenly aware that they’re in competitive situations for locating these plants. 

“The competition is coming from Europe, North America, Saudi Arabia – people are offering incentives – but the UK is doing a good job in trying to keep and attract businesses like ours.

“There are two big incentives: one is freeports for chemical parks at Humber and Teesside, and the second is these power deals.”

The battery factory planned by Jaguar Land Rover’s parent in Somerset is also likely to qualify for support, it is understood.

Read the full story here.

Wind & Solar Rent-Seekers Rage Against Communities Saving the Environment

From STOP THESE THINGS

The wind industry’s social licence looks increasingly like a licence to destroy everything in its path, including prosperous rural communities and precious ecosystems.

Wiping out huge tracts of pristine forests – habitat to rare and endangered critters of all kinds – and slicing and dicing avian predators, like hawks, falcons and eagles and bats is also apparently included in their so-called ‘licence’. And, when they spear them into the ocean floor, the license is taken to extend to the lawful killing of whales, porpoises and dolphins, and an endless trail of mangled seabirds.

So, when local communities and the politicians that attempt to represent them seek to curb or limit the scope of their self-issued ‘licence’, the wind industry and its propaganda wing descend to their very own form of indignant apoplexy.

How dare anyone object to the pointless habitat destruction, community disruption and the mindless slaughter of birds, bats and whales?

Remember this is all about saving the planet, right?

Giles Parkinson from Ruin Economy heads up the wind and solar propaganda team for rent-seekers Downunder.

Here he is in unbridled outrage mode, railing against planning controls that seek to limit the destruction these things inevitably cause on all of the accounts identified above.

NSW blots out nearly entire state for wind projects – few areas deemed “desirable” for turbines
Renew Economy
Giles Parkinson
14 November 2023

The NSW government has blotted out nearly the entire state as “less suitable” for wind farms, with few if any areas deemed “desirable” for new projects under new draft planning guidelines issued on Tuesday.

The guidelines, which include hefty new fees for wind and solar projects to provide funds to local communities as a way of overcoming social licence issues, are ostensibly about fast-tracking the planning process for new projects.

Some developers, however, have deemed the new fees as a form of tax. But the maps published with the new guidelines present an even greater problem.

They highlight huge swathes of the state deemed “desirable” or suitable for solar farms – mostly on or close to existing or proposed transmission lines – but few or no areas deemed desirable for wind projects.

Particularly noticeable is the New England area, where federal Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has been leading a raucous campaign against wind farms in particular, but also solar projects and new transmission lines. There is no part of New England deemed “desirable” in the guidelines.

The new map provided by the state government (above) shows only a tiny amount of sites deemed “suitable” west of Goulburn – ironically in the Hume electorate of one of the most vocal anti-wind campaigners of all, former energy minister Angus Taylor – and near Dubbo.

The suitable sites are highlighted in yellow. “Desirable” areas are highlighted in red, and “less suitable” in green.

“It seems wrong … a tiny amount of sites near Goulburn and Dubbo. Ouch!” said one renewable energy developer. “It must be a mistake.”

But apparently not. The document notes that “it is challenging” to find any sites for wind turbines that do not have “significant conflicts”. Industrial wind farms have proved particularly problematic in the NSW planning pipeline, with only one project approved in the last four years, according to the industry.

More recently, apart from the Joyce-led campaign against onshore wind projects, local groups have been fuelling opposition to proposed new offshore wind zones in the Illawarra and Newcastle, including emphasising the threat to migrating whales.

The renewable energy industry has already had a set back with the delay to so-called “access rights” – which were to be offered to new projects hoping to secure a place on the grid that would not be constrained. The first tender for access rates has been cancelled and pushed back another six months.

The planning guidelines published by the state government say the map shows “the most desirable areas for wind energy development considering key commercial factors and high-level environmental constraints.”

It says these wind resource potential, the proximity to existing and planned transmission infrastructure, access to major energy users, available network capacity, development and land use, land value, land use zoning, areas of high biodiversity value, and distance to major towns and population centres, national parks and reserves.

The guidelines – the first since 2016 – also include more clarity about setbacks, including a 2km setback for homes with visibility of the turbines, and 500 metre setbacks for recreational areas and national parks.

“Due to the large scale of wind energy development, it is challenging to find sites that do not have significant conflicts,” the document says.

“Projects must also be designed in a cost-effective manner to provide benefits to energy consumers and reduced electricity costs.

“Overall, the site selection process should avoid impacts as far as possible. Projects should then be designed to strike an appropriate balance between competing environmental, commercial, and social factors.”

See the contrast with the solar map below.

Renew Economy

Hostility Mounts: Offshore Wind Power Disaster Attracts Serious Onshore Opposition

From STOP THESE THINGS

There’s no real argument in favour of offshore wind power, and plenty of serious arguments against. Start with the absolutely staggering cost, which has major proponents demanding even greater subsidies from taxpayers and/or higher prices in the guaranteed power contracts they ink with governments. With governments increasingly refusing to play ball, proponents are simply dropping their grand offshore projects.

The knock-on effect for wind turbine manufacturers such as Siemens is little short of catastrophic: Siemens Energy shares plummeted 40% last week, slashing 3 billion euros ($3.16 billion) off its market value, after Siemens revealed it was demanding billions in government backed guarantees from the German government. In short, things have never looked worse.

Then there is the mounting opposition to offshore wind, coming from sensible energy advocates, situated onshore. As to which, here’s a story from the Great Lakes Advocate about plans to spear hundreds of these things off the New South Wales coast.

Dr Gillespie recently joined close to 2000 people, and addressed an anti-wind farm rally in Port Stephens
Great Lakes Advocate
22 October 2023

Wind farms are not the solution for retiring baseload generators, Member for Lyne, David Gillespie says.

Sharing his opposition to a proposed offshore windfarm in Port Stephens, Dr Gillespie said they would increase grid instability, destroy the environment and result in an increase in electricity costs.

He said this trillion dollar-plus energy plan was something the country could not afford.

Dr Gillespie recently joined close to 2000 people, and addressed an anti-wind farm rally in Port Stephens.

“I can assure all of the people who have expressed their concerns about this project that I am absolutely opposed to this development which will have a significant negative impact on our region and the people of Australia,” Dr Gillespie said.

Both locally and in many locations where these developments have been proposed, communities continue to oppose them for many good and practical reasons, and it is extremely disappointing the lack of consultation in the preparation of these projects, he said.

He said the Port Stephens project would pose a serious navigational risk for local and international shipping and boating, as well as the wind farms during storms and tempest.

The feasibility studies and the eventual project would detrimentally impact whale and dolphin (cetacean) acoustics, migration and pod behaviour, while marine bird life would suffer like they have on land-based wind farms, he said.

Dr Gillespie said there would be enormous financial cost on the multi-million dollar local commercial fishing industry, commercial freighters, blue water and the tourism economy.

“On land, the significant environmental and aesthetic impact will be felt with the connecting, high-voltage grid, which is likely to travel through the pristine Great Lakes and Myall Coast native bush, environmental and agricultural land.

“This will have a very significant cost, which electricity payers will subsidise through higher grid and electricity prices.

“The whole proposal is outrageously uneconomic and relies on subsidies via Large Scale Renewable Energy Certificates, which you pay on your rising electricity bills.”

He said new baseload replacement power was urgently required to create 28,000 kilometres of new power lines through the countryside.

The landscape would resemble an industrial park of wind turbines and solar panels.

“This trillion dollar-plus energy plan is something we simply cannot afford.”

Dr Gillespie said existing power stations should be maintained until they can be replaced by new zero-emission nuclear technology.

As coal-fired power plants are retired, they could be replaced at those sites with modern modular nuclear power plants which can be plugged into the existing grid which will avoid the economic an environmental mess the federal government will create if they continue to pursue their 100 per cent renewable agenda, Dr Gillespie said.

“I will be continuing to raise this matter in parliament and do all I can to stop it and I am encouraging everyone in the community to hold all federal and state Labor ministers and MPs, Greens and Independents to account for their failure to listen and apply simple commonsense.”
Great Lakes Advocate