By Barney Smith On 29 June 2022, the Global Wind Energy Council(GWEC) released its latest Annual Offshore Wind Report. Inter-alia, it chronicles the growing disparity between the considerable improvements in off- shore wind during the year (2021 was actually the best year ever) and the demands of those who would rather measure the world’s reaction [...]
Boris and Rishi make a mess of energy policy By Stewart Dalby Although the energy crisis has been subsumed by more ridiculous news items like whether Boris Johnson will hold on to his job or not, the crisis is nevertheless coming up with new developments in the energy chaos which are of great [...]
By Stewart Dalby Vladimir Putin is not the only deranged dictator in history to have become preoccupied with his energy situation. Back in the period of 23 August 1942 to 2 February 1943 Hitler’s German army and its allies fought against the Soviet Union for the control of the City of Stalingrad. The battle was [...]
By Stewart Dalby In recent years I have spent a lot of time being involved in the issue of British energy supply policy by writing about it and interviewing some of the key figures involved in the matter. So I felt confident last September that I could tell my friends and neighbours that most of [...]
By Barney Smith The second week of COP 26 and its conclusion were no worse than we had expected, though that hardly commends the outcome. It seems that no country, (not even the host nation) was prepared to go the extra mile “for the planet”. But one might ask how important the future of the [...]
By Stewart Dalby Leaving aside the problems of petrol and CO2 shortages, the current Energy Crisis is the most disruptive in more than 50 years, in that the exponential rise in the wholesale gas price has caused domestic housing gas and electrical bills to go up considerably as well. The crisis is also significant in [...]
Recently the Financial Times had a lead story with a spokesman from Centrica the owner of British Gas saying soaring wholesale prices for energy, particularly gas, could raise domestic energy bills substantially They could also force energy intensive businesses to cut production and, in some cases shut down for a time. Gas prices have increased [...]
.By Barney Smith On 18 November 2020, the Prime Minister produced his ten-point plan for the environment: a key point was on emissions and electric cars (EVs), including the eye-catching announcement “From 2030 we will end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans”. An announcement is one thing, but follow-up is another. [...]
By Stewart Dalby Last week I received a letter, dated 24 March from my energy supplier, EDF. The company said it was going to put up my bill by an extra £127.78p or 9.3 per cent in early April 2021. This means a bill amounting to £1210 per annum. I did wonder why my bill’s [...]
By Stewart Dalby To paraphrase the Queen who in 1992 described that year as her “annus horribilis”, we can say that without fear of contradiction 2020 has been nine months or so of unremitting horrors unprecedented in the lifetimes of most of us. By mid-December over 70,000 people, young and old, had died in England [...]