Scandal erupts over UK green energy subsidy
Cost to taxpayer £1 billion – no improvement in climate
The Times of London says this:
A botched green energy scheme that has ignited a political crisis is on course to cost taxpayers more than £1 billion. The Treasury faces the bill after a massive overspend on subsidies encouraging farmers and businesses in Northern Ireland to run eco-friendly power schemes. The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was supposed to cost £25 million in its first five years but the bill is likely to reach £1.15 billion over 20 years.
That’s nearly nine times more than intended.
“So this is what sustainable means, dad?”
“Yes, my lad. It could go on for years—so I’ll sign up first thing tomorrow.”
If you sign up to the green carbon madness,
What does the government give you for running a ‘biomass’ boiler on forest ‘waste’ all year for 20 years?
In the UK you would get £192,000. So each year you would pick up £9600 (€11,290) or $NZ17,024. Not bad. New car, school fees, club membership.
But in Northern Ireland, courtesy of Arlene Foster, the minister responsible when the scheme was set up in 2012, it’s 4.5 times higher. You could get £860,000, or £43,000 (€50,582) ($NZ76,238) every year.
Heat an empty shed or a couple of empty factories. A handsome living—but you could hold down a real job at the same time; who’d be a taxpayer when your leaders are lunatics?
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The Ramsey Sound Tidal Project looks like its been a fizzer too.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4081766/18million-tidal-energy-scheme-stops-working-just-three-months.html
I find a couple of things really intriguing about that project, Maggy. The first is that it should “founder” on a failure of the sonar system. I should have thought that any problems with sonar systems would have long since been solved. After all they have been used since the Second World War. If they haven’t been solved then I pity submariners! The second is that the company, Tidal Energy, apparently bailed out quickly. Especially after building at least some of the installation. Some of the comments on the Daily Mail article refer to this, and some question where the rest of the capital went. I actually wonder why they bothered with sonar, unless it was intended to allay criticisms by environmentalists. Without digging further I have no idea how fast the turbines were intended to turn, but I suspect probably no faster than wind turbines. How much would such a speed be likely to endanger marine life?
@Gary Kerkin,
I asked the hubby (acoustician) what he thought might have gone wrong with the sonar, but he could offer no ideas without further information. We couldn’t find any info on the Project’s own website.
This link from BBC indicates that the Sonar fault wasn’t the only problem with the project…mechanical problems also…
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-38236014
Looks like there had been much green spin in the lead up to the project though.
You may recall a few years ago there was a proposal for such a scheme in the mouth of the Kaipara Harbour (or close to it in a high tidal flow area). It never proceeded and one of the significant criticisms was that suspended sand would constitute a major mechanical (erosion/corrosion) problem. I would guess that magnetite would exacerbate the problem.