Panoramal Activity

8th November 2011

 

Is Panorama seeing ghosts? Yesterday’s (Mon 7th Nov) programme on the rising cost of consumer energy certainly left us wondering if the BBC was having experiences that ‘lie outside of the range of normal experience or scientific explanation’.

For those who didn’t see it, you can still check it out on BBC iPlayer. Brace yourself though because it’s more than a little one-sided, suggesting that government policies towards renewable energy, particularly onshore wind, are fuelling the UK’s dramatic rise in consumer energy prices.

That’s despite the fact that the government energy watchdog Ofgem currently estimates that around 50% of the average consumer bill is made up of the wholesale cost of gas, passed on to consumers. When gas prices go up, those rises get tacked onto your bill. While government initiatives to increase household energy efficiency (cutting consumer needs for energy) and renewable technology (to reduce the UK’s dependence on expensive gas) also contribute, they are a small addition in comparison.

Neither did it address the issue of fuel poverty with the seriousness it deserved. And it is a very serious issue, and one we’re well aware of here at Action for Renewables. It’s one thing to highlight the plight of many people around the UK, especially the elderly, who will struggle to pay their bills this winter, but quite another to suggest that offshore wind farms will be responsible for ‘decreasing the surplus population’ over the winter.

Both the WWF in this blogpost and the Guardian have already jumped to point out the shortcomings of the program in great detail and we’re considering how to respond to the programme. If we’re going to secure a long term reliance on clean, safe renewable energy, it’s vital we move to stop misinformation like this.

If you want to submit a complaint, then visit the BBC complaints site at http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

 

 

Comments

Aeolus's picture
Aeolus Thu, 10/11/2011 - 6:52pm

In the latest edition of Private Eye (11 - 24 November), we read that "David Cameron has boasted that he's given the go-ahead for a huge new 1,500 megawatt gas-fired power station at Thorpe Marsh near Doncaster".  The article goes on to explain that the company he's given the go-ahead to doesn't really seem to exist.

One possibility is that "Thorpe Marsh Power Ltd" is a temporary front for Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) - the same SSE that recently announced it was pulling out of nuclear power.  Any reluctance to be associated with the proposed gas-fired power station at Thorpe Marsh might be down to SSE having second thoughts about gas as well.

The Eye reveals that a 1,500 megawatt gas-fired power station would cost about £1bn to build.  On top of that, at current wholesale prices the annual contract for the gas needed to burn to generate electricity there would be about £500m.  Over twenty-five years (the lifespan of a wind turbine), that would amount to 12.5 billion pounds at today's prices for the gas alone.  Gas prices are almost certain to rise during that period.

In short, the numbers don't really add up, and with the Scottish Executive pursuing renewables so enthusiastically and successfully for Scotland, it is quite likely that SSE is thinking of where the market is going and abandoning nuclear and gas in favour of the more cost-effective long-term option: renewables.

If, as seems likely, David Cameron's vaunted gas-fired plant might not in fact go ahead, and there are serious issues relating to nuclear, then it is possible that the UK will have little choice in the end but to do the right thing.  However, the pressure to pursue the non-renewable options are considerable (this coalition government being so easily bought, and Tory backbenchers having ideological problems with the whole green movement), and so programmes like Panorama might be doing the government's propaganda work for them.  Which is a waste of time, really, if no one's actually interested in building new gas-fired power stations.