Britain’s rush toward a country powered by energy from green sources to combat global warming has run into a little problem. Not enough green energy:
Britain is turning to highly polluting diesel generators to help solve its energy supply problems https://t.co/vnDM4pQoa3
— Financial Times (@FT) November 4, 2015
Even better. Britain is offering tax subsidies to build the dirty diesel generators, which green energy companies are scooping up. From the FT:
The subsidies on offer are so appealing that even solar-power developers, which have recently had their own subsidies cut, are building diesel generation on their sites as a way of maximising their returns. Lark Energy, a solar-power developer, is bidding for subsidies to build 18MW of diesel generation on its Ellough project in Suffolk, for example.
So now British taxpayers get to pay green energy companies to build new dirty power plants that will replace the old dirty power plants that Britain put out of business in order to move toward a green energy future:
The UK is facing serious energy-supply difficulties over the next few years as old coal plants are taken offline without new power plants being built to replace them. National Grid, which runs the country’s power network, has predicted that the gap between electricity supply and demand this winter could get as close as 5 per cent — the tightest in a decade.
Diesel plants that aren’t much cleaner than the coal plants they are replacing:
According to the International Energy Agency, diesel electricity production emits only slightly less carbon than burning coal, and if the power plants were to run full-time for a year, they would emit 10m tonnes of carbon. They will avoid having to pay for their carbon pollution under the European emissions trading scheme, however, because they are too small to do so.
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So much for the headlines that Britain’s green energy was booming, heh?
. @EdwardDaveyMP: "A green energy future that once seemed impossible for Britain is fast becoming a reality" http://t.co/kikYQoQoBp
— Will Nichols (@WillNicholsRisk) July 31, 2014
Here’s the reality: thousands of British coal miners have been laid off in recent years, thanks to the move toward green energy — which now has to be supplemented with a different dirty energy:
A gradual switch to green energy and cheaper coal imports has turned lights out for Britain's coal industry. https://t.co/QOzdG9i7r7
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) November 1, 2015
And high green-energy taxes that are hammering Britain’s steel industry:
UK Telegraph: Britain's green energy policy is hammering its steel industry https://t.co/GX5VKjjCcN
— Craig Rucker (@CJRucker) October 21, 2015
Britain can’t say they weren’t warned:
Great Britain faces a huge energy crunch — projected blackouts and soaring prices as coal-fueled power is cut back http://t.co/2n0PNmVbhL
— Vic Svec (@VicSvec) February 21, 2013
Duh.
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