We were startled to see the dramatic headline "Defying climate deal like appeasing Hitler-UK" which quoted  UK energy and climate change minister Chris Huhne speaking at Chatham House on 21st July (full story at http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL6E7IL0MF20110721)

We at DimWatt are sorely tested by the likes of the technically-challenged Mr Huhne whose apparent concern for the environment seems only to be matched by his transparent need to hog the daily news atwww.decc.gov.uk. 

What other crimes and personality disorders do we, who are politely in disagreement, not to say alarmed, over the drift of UK energy policy, suffer from, in the view of the Coalition's energy and "climate" leaders?

It is therefore a timely delight to introduce Kent Hawkins, one of the Principals of the free market  energy blog, www.MasterResources.org, to readers of DimWatt, with the thoughtful paper posted below.

We Are Not Getting Energy Policy Right – and We Must (242.77 kB)

This article has also been posted at the European Energy Review. It can also be downloaded as pdf

Can_an_energy_melt-down_be_avoided_in_the_united_kingdom (830.45 kB)

After hundreds of years of imperial and industrial power and recent energy self-sufficiency, the UK has suddenly become more or less powerless as a world player.  With its North Sea resources fast depleting just when it seems that the world’s upstream energy producers of oil, coal and gas are struggling to meet rising global demand, saddled with a public debt of £ one trillion, and a massive and worsening trade deficit, its leading role as an innovative, world-class centre of scientific and manufacturing know-how long ceded to Germany, Japan - and now China, it is ill prepared to become a net energy importer.

Its aging primary electricity infrastructure was designed for its days as a low-cost, energy producer. Its technically illiterate, if financially canny politicians and civil service do not appear to understand that the world’s financiers are not likely to be attracted to placing the estimated £200 billion of long-term investment into their vision of a “low carbon” infrastructure while this concept remains so extremely wooly and badly-defined.

The UK’s freedom for technical and financial manoevre is deeply restricted by passing into law the Climate Change Act in 2008 and its shared but impractical and expensive commitment to the EU’s 20-20-20 targets.  Something must give as it heads, almost willfully, toward certain failure.

It is becoming ever clearer to us at DimWatt that the Climate Change Act, passed by almost the whole of Parliament in February 2008, was an act of collective madness. The "legal" (if absolutely arbitrary) 20-20-20 obligations agreed by Blair at the EU, impose incoherence on the development of any rational energy policy development ever since.

All the current DECC consultations, not least the present Electricity Market Reform (EMR) consultation, bear testament to this.

The ETS has been hijacked by criminals on a scale that makes €million bank robberies seem a minor infraction while Euro response is limp, to say the least. The UK must withdraw from this.

We recognise that the Trade associations, both on energy production as well as energy consuming sides of the equation, are governed by narrow, "secular" concerns. But among them are surely far-sighted "patriots" who can see the enormous risk to the economy (therefore their UK assets, family futures etc) posed by simply "going along" with the "official" line.

Sadly, we are reminded of that famous Irish joke

Paddy stopped cutting the hedge as the big car drew up beside him and an English visitor enquired, 

"Could you tell me the way to Balbriggan, Please?"
Paddy wiped his brow. 

"Certainly, sor. If you take the first road to the left? no still that wouldn't do? drive on for about four miles then turn left at the crossroads? no that wouldn't do either."
Paddy scratched his head thoughtfully.

"You know, sor, if I was going to Balbriggan I wouldn't start from here at all."

The Coalition is simply unable to develop a rational and affordable energy policy from where it has been left by New Labour.

We now urge the Coalition to gather up the necessary courage to rescind foolish legislation and detach UK policy from completely impractical and unaffordable "legal" commitments, in time to save our energy planning process from these unnecessary strictures.

We were impressed by the paper Arthur D Little's UK office published September 2010 at

http://www.europeanenergyreview.eu/index.php?id=2321 and which we have permission to reproduce in its entirety at DimWatt. This article can also be downloaded here:

Realigning_UK_energy_policy (59.8 kB)

(originally entitled “Are Green Times just around the corner?”)

Dr John Constable, the Director of Research at the Renewable Energy Foundation (www.ref.org.uk) has written an important new article, entitled "Renewables won't keep the lights on", for the on-line Standpoint Magazine at http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/node/3639/full

His article begins with the statement that “In private, the best-informed analysts now agree that Britain's environmental policies have put the country on track to have the world's most expensive electricity.” This is true and tragic. Whatever happened to the “honest” analyst? That their well-informed views are largely correct but held privately disgraces not just the "best-informed analysts" but the whole financial industry!  These are the same analysts (or at least from the same self-regarding stables) who stayed mum and therefore well rewarded, while their peers exponentially diced and sliced debts, leading up to the Great Crash of 2008.

The title is self-evidently true, of course, as anyone who is following the electricity generation sector this third-in-a-row, 1960s-style, cold winter (2010 - 2011) can confirm. Typically, wind power output during the periods of greatest (and record) demand has been a piffling few percent at most of their highly expensive, nameplate capacity - and a negligible fraction of national requirements.

This winter is proving once again that, just when it is needed most, wind power (installed capacity > 5 GW) can provide the nation with no effective, reliable generation capacity at all. And forget about photo-voltaic output (PV)!