The Path To Ruin
The Northern Variant
September 16, 2023.
Here’s what you need to know about Net Zero: Decarbonising the grid is very expensive. Doing so will not impact the climate. Nobody will follow Britain’s lead. It will make your energy bills more expensive on a permanent basis. For every job it creates in the energy sector, it will kill three in the real economy. More importantly, it’s not going to work.
Britain is a “world leader” in offshore wind. It does, occasionally, make an impressive contribution to Britain’s energy supply. But that’s no use if it’s not predictable and if it’s not available when you need it. Supply shortfalls somehow must be plugged. This is becoming increasingly precarious as we’ve dismantled much of our baseload generation. We’re reliant on gas (at times when it’s the most expensive). Grid scale battery storage can cover a few hours at best. But sometimes we have weeks of low wind.
Over the last few years, we’ve had more and more squeaky bum moments. The more intermittent sources you add, and the more baseload you remove, the greater the grid instability, and the more precarious the grid becomes. That means we have to squeeze every last drop of juice from wherever we can get it – be it diesel generators, antiquated coal stations or interconnectors from Europe. That’s a big gamble. Several countries are making the same bet, outsourcing security of supply to French nuclear – assuming it’s working and assuming there’s a surplus. Last winter was touch and go, and we got lucky because it was a mild winter. But every serious analyst I’ve spoken to thinks next winter could be crunch time.
There is great uncertainty about security of supply if we have a cold winter. Of course, the grid has planned for such eventualities. With no additional capacity to call on, their only option is to ask heavy industry to switch off. And we must pay them to do so. This, though, is a policy failure that harms Britain’s productivity. The grid is supposed to adapt to demand, but instead we’re reorganising the economy to meet the demands of the grid. At the best of times this would be bad policy. Only this is worse because it coincides with a government drive to electrify home heating and transition to EVs, for which there is nothing like the necessary grid infrastructure. That can only mean rationing by way of price increases.
Net Zero advocates claim the solution is to distribute peak demand by way of smart meters, where the less well-off are coerced to rearrange their schedule around the needs of the grid. Put simply, you’re going to pay more for a reduction in living standards.
The average pro-Net Zero MP, as you’ve probably noticed, is thick as mince. They think wind energy is cheap and green. They haven’t thought at all about whether the grid has the capacity to charge EVs. Thinking is something they do not do. They’re surrounded by know-nothing eco-wonks from the blob, and they believe what they’re told.
There is now serious doubt as to whether a national crisis can be averted. The only interim policy until new nuclear comes on stream in sufficient quantities is to build gas power stations as quickly as we can. But this will be expensive because over fifty percent of the cost of gas is green taxes. They’ve made energy permanently expensive which is why inflation is not coming down.
Since mainstream media isn’t going to do its job, and the BBC will stick to the “clean energy” narrative, it’s up to you to spread the word. Write to your MP. Try to make them see sense. Shout it from the rooftops.
Net Zero is the path to economic ruin.
© The Northern Variant 2023
Image via New Scientist
