The temptation is to jump on the bandwagon and attack British Gas owner Centrica for profiteering and for participating in a cartel in the wake of its 12.5% hike in electricity prices. It is certainly difficult to feel any sympathy for a multinational corporation that raked in profits of £816 …
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Britain’s hi-tech clean energy future was going to be built around a smart grid of interconnected household and business smart meters. Connected up to smart equipment like domestic heaters and freezers, the smart grid would enable National Grid operators to balance supply and demand by remotely operating the equipment; for …
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Make way for yet another tedious round of green virtue signalling as people who should know better celebrate the UK government’s ban on new petrol and diesel cars. At first glance, it sounds like a great idea. The billions of cars and vans around the world that pump out noxious …
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Green virtue signalling has become so prominent that even Tory ministers are getting in on the act. Today, Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark will announce a new Industrial Strategy that, apparently, aims to power the UK economy with solar panels. What’s not to like? Except, of course, that this …
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Depending on who you believe, smart meters are either an essential weapon in the fight against climate change or a sinister means of over-charging and disconnecting poorer households. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. Nevertheless, according to the UK government, “Smart meters are here — and they put you …
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Despite the upbeat propaganda put out by the fracking companies and repeated by the mainstream media, UK frackers are in serious trouble. In response to a freedom of information request by independent journalist Russell Scott, the UK government has released papers that show that the industry is unable to secure …
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While businesses and journalists readily understand (and often misunderstand) the idea of return on investment (“there is no magic money tree”) they seldom make the intellectual leap to apply the concept to the far more important area of energy. Currency, after all, really can be printed out of thin air …
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Renewable energy is usually presented as the sensible alternative to domestic (fracking) gas. However, in Britain at least, the two are essential components of the same suite of technologies. This is because of the poor choices made by the UK government that force solar and wind energy to go hand …
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Read the headlines and you could be forgiven for laughing in the face of climate change and resource depletion. Renewable energy, it seems, will win the day. Take this example by Ian Johnston in the Independent: “Renewable energy is a mainstream technology, which is cheaper and more advanced than ever. …
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Britain just lost three quarters of its natural gas storage capacity, leaving it dependent upon gas imports from as far afield as Qatar and Russia. Centrica, the owner of the Rough storage site in the North Sea off the coast of Yorkshire has applied for permission to close the facility …
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Consciousness of Sheep