Sivad wrote:
Denmark has the highest energy prices in the world. Maybe their massive welfare state has domesticated the Danes so completely that now those danishes are just a neutered bunch of breakfast pastries who don't have any riot left in em.
yes it's a bad thing, it means the public is getting screwed paying higher prices than necessary. how could it possibly be a good thing?
That analyst in your article said those projects are gonna be collecting the levies for the life of the contracts. That's not subsidy free.
Denmark have no higher generating costs than any other nation, their higher consumer price is through taxation. Further to this they have some of the most energy efficient housing in the world and use district heating which has a far lower energy footprint than gas boilers or electric heaters. All the scandinavian countries use the same system of higher taxation and higher government support and their economies arent exactly on the verge of collapse and their people feeling oppressed.
No energy is subsidy free.
For the UK generators bid for T1 and T4 contracts and receive a payment even if they do not supply energy, this is open to Nuclear, Gas, Coal, Oil, Hydro, Interconnectors and businesses that are prepared to curtail production when electricity demand is high.
The winning bidders for the 55GW of generating capacity receive a fixed price KWh and then get the wholesale price when they sell their electricity to the market. Renewables like wind and solar do not have access to the capacity market so do not receive this payment on top of what they generate. No one would call it a subsidy but it all adds to the cost paid by the taxpayer for electricity
Nuclear has been promising cheap electricity for 60 years and yet still it fails to deliver. The latest Nuclear plants are all late, way over budget and no new nuclear power station has been built without significant state funding. The latest at Hinkley is going to cost the taxpayer billions over the 35 year term. Why would you think that paying over £100 Mwh for nuclear when renewables are now coming in at nearly a third of that price today and set to fall further?
As for the UKs current nuclear fleet, it's a mess. Supposedly has a generating capacity of 9GW but maintenance and unscheduled repairs mean that it's currently managing 5.2GW with only 8 of the 15 reactors running.
https://www.edfenergy.com/energy/power- ... y-statusesHow strange it is that some are happy to spend billions on a potentially jam tomorrow solution then there are cheaper options today.
This is the conundrum for the likes of you. Denmark, Germany and UK have paid the early adopter cost to mature the technology and now we are all benefiting from the cheaper prices that are no longer at the mercy of Gas and Coal prices.