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Renewables Cronyism: Germany and UK Cases
The document discusses the inefficiencies and high costs associated with renewable energy sources in developed countries such as Germany and the UK, highlighting their heavy reliance on coal and natural gas for stable and affordable electricity. It critiques government favoritism towards renewables, pointing out that such policies may lead to increased electricity prices without significant climate benefits. The author argues against the notion of man-made climate change and calls for a reevaluation of renewable energy policies that impose costs on consumers while benefitting crony interests.
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Renewables Cronyism: Germany and UK Cases
- 1. Bienvenido “Nonoy” OplasJr. Minimal Government Thinkers, Inc. Renewables Cronyism, Germany and UK Cases Occasional lectures in the Philippines Presentation at Development Economics class + Comparative Economics of SEA class Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), Quezon City 22 January 2015
- 2. Outline I. Global energymix II. Generation cost, Electricity prices, developed countries III. Germany Case IV. UK Case V. No climate basis for renewables cronyism VI. Conclusions
- 3. I. Global EnergyMix, 2010 Source: Total world energy consumption by source 2010, from REN21 Renewables 2012 Global Status Report. Reposted in WUWT, A LOL ! press release on renewable energy from wishful thinkers at the University of Delaware * Note that wind + solar was only 0.6 % of total despite decades of govts. support
- 4. • Share ofcoal + natural gas, 50.5% in 1973, 63.2% in 2011 Source: IEA
- 5.
- 6. source: WUWT, Maryland’s“Wind Powered Welfare”, March 12, 2013 II. Generation Cost, Electricity Prices Wind and solar are agn, the most costly power sources, for US plants entering 2018.:
- 7. source: IEA, MediumTerm Renewable Energy Market Report 2014 http://www.iea.org/Textbase/npsum/MTrenew2014sum.pdf Even among fellow renewables, solar and offshore wind are expensive.
- 8. So countries thathave more wind and solar farms also have the most expensive electricity rates.
- 9. Famous climatologist RoySpencer showed this chart on the right – increase in life expectancy, people living healthier, longer, coincided with CO2 emission and moderniztion of human society. Source: Dr. Spencer, Why Don’t More People Care About Global Warming?. October 1, 2014.
- 10. WSJ, 16 October2013 III. Germany Case
- 12. source: NTZ, Germany’sRenewable Energy Efficiency Falls To Just Over 20% – Threatening To Ruin Country’s Competitiveness, February 24, 2013 In Germany, 1990 to 2011, capacity utilization for (a) wind about 15%, (b) solar about 10%. The other renewables have higher utilization rate.
- 13. EurActiv, 22 October2014 New York Times, 24 October 2014 The Telegraph, 7 November 2014
- 14. Europe being avery modern continent, and Germany and UK being highly industrialized countries, and yet there are stories and reports of “EU risks blackout”, a “dark continent”, and “impossible green dream”. In developed Asia like Hong Kong (electricity, 71% from coal, 29% from natural gas, zero from renewables; Singapore 78% from natural gas and 18% from oil, very small from renewables (as of 2011, from ADB’’s Key Indicators 2014) ); S. Korea and Japan, the words “blackout” or brownout” or “dark continent” are never heard. They have huge, stable and reliable energy supply, at cheap prices, their energy policies have not been hijacked by green socialism yet. Below, IV. UK Case
- 15. Sunday Express, 15October 2014 Mail Online, 15 October 2014 The Telegraph, 5 October 2014 Intl. Business Times, 6 November 2014 The Times, UK, 21 November 2014
- 16. (Above, Batanes; below,Bangui, Ilocos Norte)
- 17. Source: Energy Econ25: Coal Use and GDP Expansion, Is There a Correlation?, 01 September 2014 Previous photos -- reason why if there are wind farms, there are no houses, no fishing or farming village, no beach resorts, almost no other economic activity. Those wind towers can fall down, wind turbines and blades can get burned and fall down. The economic trade off of having more wind farms is huge. Plus huge amount of mining and production of iron and steel, cement and other mineral products. Below, those who relied more on coal power have faster econ. growth.
- 18. V. No ClimateBasis for Renewables Cronyism
- 19. Climate change (CC)is true. It happened in the past, happening now, and will happen in the future. Global warming (GW) is true, it happened in the past (last century, Medieval warm period, Roman warm period,…), and will happen again in the future. Global cooling is also true, happened in the past, happening now. Because CC is natural (nature-made, not made), it is cyclical (warming- cooling-warming-cooling), and has precedents (not “unprecedented”). Skeptics (like me) do not deny CC or GW because these are true. What we deny is that CC and GW is “man-made” or anthropogenic. CC is caused by nature (the Sun, galactic cosmic rays, water vapor, volcanoes, ocean oscillation, carbon cycle, hydrologic cycle,…). Below, warming-cooling cycle coinciding with CO2 concentration. One study says temperature leads CO2, other studies say it’s the reverse. Common denominator, there are precedents of warm period, lasting for decades & centuries.
- 20. Source: WUWT, EuanMearns,, Vostok and the 8000 year time lag Dec. 27, 2014
- 21. VI. Concluding Notes 1.Pilipinas gaya-gaya (imitating). Because UK, Germany and other European countries have renewables favoritism and cronyism laws, we also have one. The Renewable Energy Act of 2008 (RA 9513). 2. The PH’s RE law has more cronyism provisions than RE laws of our Asian neighbors. This slide + 2 slides below presented at the ADB few years ago by former DOE Sec. Vince Perez, who later migrated to become WWF-PH Chairman, while owning several wind power companies.
- 22. NREB Proposed ERC Approved Solar 17.95 9.68 Wind10.37 8.53 Biomass 7.00 6.63 Hydro, run of river 6.15 5.90 Philippines Feed in Tariff (FIT), approved July 2012
- 23. 3. Renewables arefine, provided there should be NO subsidies. People can put up solar panels in the roof of their houses and buildings, fine. People can put up wind towers in their farms and private property, fine. They are using their own money, taking their own risks and benefits. 4. It is different when people put up wind farms or solar farms in huge areas including public forest lands, because they want to get paid huge money (via RPS and FIT) at the expense of consumers. FIT is the guaranteed minimum for renewables. While coal, nat gas, big hydro geothermal can be priced down to P1/kWh or even less during non- peak hours, renewables are guaranteed to be paid FIT rates. 5. Cases of Germany and UK show that government intervention and cronyism in energy policy is wrong and counter-productive. Governments should get out of electricity pricing, stop forcing grid operators and electricity distributors to buy first from renewables even if their rates are expensive. 6. There is zero climate basis for renewables cronyism. There is zero justification for governments to intervene heavily in energy production mix and electricity pricing.