FROM NO A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT?
By Paul Homewood
A rather cryptic article, nothing more than a plug for the regenerative lobby:
The UK’s incredible green energy capabilities could allow it to replace Russia as a major energy exporter to the EU, Express.co.uk can exclusively reveal.
Europe currently reeling from a major crisis, with many analysts pointing fingers at Russia Due to the low amount of gas from this country, the wholesale price has increased dramatically. Russian President Vladimir Putin is accused of deliberately cutting off Europe gas supplies to expedite the approval of Nord Stream 2. Nord Stream 2 is a new pipeline that will transit gas from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, passing through Poland and Ukraine on its way.
Moscow has cut the volume of gas entering the bloc through its vast pipeline network, sending EU prices soaring to record highs.
Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy believes that renewable energy, now cheaper than fossil fuels, can turn the UK into a major exporter of electricity.
Talking to Express.co.uk“Renewables were cheaper before the fossil fuel crisis,” he said.
“Electricity generated from wind and solar is cheaper than electricity generated from gas.
“That means the more renewables we build, the cheaper it gets.”
According to Mr. Jackson, 15% of electricity consumed by a typical household today comes from renewable sources.
“That speaks to our opportunity to convert a lot of renewable energy into electricity and keep costs down while we do it,” he said.
“Octopus has £3.5 billion worth of electricity generation, and we think Octopus alone will need around £20 billion of electricity over the coming decades to meet these needs.
He added: “For the UK, wind power could also be a great export.
“The more wind we generate, the bigger cables we have connecting us to France and Norway and we will be able to sell the electricity we generate.
“The energy we can export is clean green electricity.
“When we build the power plant here, we use domestic electricity and when there is backup power, we can sell it.”
If the UK becomes a major energy exporter, it will be in the top position to replace Russia, which currently supplies 40% of the EU’s energy needs through natural gas.
Replace Russian gas? Apparently neither the Express nor Mr Jackson mind any money!
So help them.
In 2019, the EU (including the UK) consumed 470 bcm of natural gas, according to Statista:
Excluding the UK, this drops to 391 bcm, or 3820 TWh. This is more than a third of the total EU electricity consumption of 2892 TWh. About half of that gas comes from Russia.
And as we know here, gas consumption peaks much higher in winter, up to about 530 TWh/month. This equates to 746 GW:
https://energyindustryreview.com/analysis/eu-gas-consumption-and-production-in-q1-2020/
In fact, the intraday peaks are even higher. Keeping in mind that we currently have 11 GW of offshore wind capacity and are targeting 40 GW, I don’t think that will affect Europe’s energy mix, even assuming we have any anything to spare.
Jackson commented that “when we have backup power, we can sell it”. Did he really think Europe would be shivering happily in the cold, just waiting for a windy day? Does he think electricity can be stored like gas?
Then of course there is the question of link capacity, which is currently around 4GW for mainland Europe. Even if we had a lot of power to spare, there would be little chance of actually exporting it. And who does Mr. Jackson think will pay for any additional connector capacity added? It certainly won’t be the wind industry!
Given how cheap wind power is, perhaps he should consider the fact that even at today’s sky-high levels, the wholesale price of gas is around £60/MWh. This is still much cheaper than any offshore wind farm currently in operation, with an average of £163/MWh.
The “author” of this article is Antony Ashkenaz, another young contributor interested in climate change, but with little journalism or world experience:
I purposely used an inverted comma, because it became clear that this was simply a puff of cake, ordered by Octopus Energy.
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