Featured Posts
Time to accept that wind farm costs are not falling
There has been a consistent narrative that the cost of building new wind farms is falling, with falling subsidy [...]
Windfall tax harms oil and gas production and must be cut
In May last year, the UK Government introduced a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies [...]
Why Norway’s views on energy security should ring alarm bells across Europe
Norway's energy security would appear to be a done deal, yet the past couple of years have been very [...]
Addressing the high real cost of renewable generation
Over the past few months we have been inundated with claims from interested parties that more renewables are the [...]
Recent Posts
The rise and rise of bills 2: why is it so hard to understand electricity costs?
In my last post I wrote about the increasing cost of environmental policies on the back of prices rises from npower and a capacity auction that will secure capacity for next winter at over three times the price of [...]
The rise and rise of bills: time to come clean about the true cost of electricity
The cost of electricity is in the news once again with the move by supplier npower last week to increase prices by 15%, arguing that higher wholesale prices together with increased non-commodity costs could no longer be absorbed by the [...]
The Early Capacity Auction could be a very bad deal for consumers
The early capacity auction designed to secure security of supply for 2017/18 has entered its fourth day, with the price having dropped to £15 /kW by the end of yesterday’s round, some way below the expected clearing level of [...]
German Energiewende: a billion euro mistake?
Germany’s Energiewende and the resulting rapid expansion of renewable energy in Germany has been held out as the model for other nations to follow, but there are growing doubts as to its effectiveness. As I have noted before, the [...]
National Grid skirts calls for an independent system operator…for now
Last summer the House of Commons Energy and Climate Committee raised questions about the conflicts of interest inherent in National Grid’s role as the electricity system operator and recommended that the government should create an independent SO to mitigate [...]
IFA outage: so far in 2017 this does look like a good thing
Last month I wrote about the IFA outage and suggested that the historic trend of exporting in periods of high UK demand might mean the outage is positive for UK capacity margins. So far 2017 has seen some significant [...]
Tidal lagoons: Hendry review supportive but looks too good to be true
Last week saw the publication of Stephen Hendry’s long awaited report into the prospects for tidal energy in the UK, and the hyperbole in the press has been interesting to observe. In his report, Hendry concludes: “I believe that [...]
Key themes in the energy market for 2017
2017 could see further interesting and potentially dramatic changes to the UK energy market. In this post I explore some of the key themes for the coming year. # Creation of an Independent System Operator Throughout 2016 pressure was growing [...]
Decarbonisation of transport: exploiting seasonal phenomena
I’ve recently written about the work of the Energy Policy group at Exeter University, however another team at Exeter is exploring a novel way of transport which has significant benefits in terms of speed and efficiency, while also having [...]
The 2016 capacity auction: a bit of new gas, a bit more flexibility but mostly higher prices for existing generation
After three days of bidding, the 2016 capacity auction for the delivery year 2020/21 finally cleared at £22.50 / kW / yr, a higher price than the two previous auctions which cleared at £19.40 / kWh / yr and [...]
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