Solar ... In the news

spgsc531

Hidden amongst this story....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25337942

"The Whole of Government Accounts predicted nuclear decommissioning costs alone could rise to £64.3bn."

The cost of decommissioning the UK's nuclear power stations rose by a further £3.4bn over the period.
Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the committee, said this reflected the fact that "financial liabilities for dealing with nuclear waste keep growing, with timetables continually slipping".

Cardew

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4844775


That thread is about this article:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25200808




Helsinki is the cheapest of the 23 European cities surveyed for electricity prices. Households in Berlin - the most expensive - pay two-and-a-half times as much, largely due to taxes and subsidies designed to boost renewable energy production.

In fact, almost a third of a Berliner's electricity bill comprises energy taxes. The equivalent figure for the UK is currently 9%, but this will fall - possibly by three or four percentage points - once energy suppliers pass on recently announced changes in green levies.

spgsc531

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25390456

Cardew

Solar panel production to cease at Sharp in Wrexham


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-25403719

digitaltoast

Cardew wrote: »

Solar panel production to cease at Sharp in Wrexham

Yeah, I just saw that.

Funny, because I seem to remember participating in a long discussion on another solar panel thread here along the lines of "all these £billions are a great investment to kick start the solar industry - blah- long term jobs - blah - green economy - blah" and so on.

Now, I'm not gloating at all. Far from it. What a terrible thing to have happened for the workers involved. But is anyone surprised? At all? Did anyone not see this coming? For all the flack he got for stating the bleedin' obvious, it looks like Monbiot was right about this stack of cards.

Cardew

More here.


http://www.wrexham.com/news/sharp-expected-to-announce-large-scale-job-losses-as-solar-production-ends-39495.html


What a difference 3 months makes:


http://www.pv-tech.org/news/sharp_near_full_capacity_at_uk_solar_module_assembly_plant

silverwhistle

digitaltoast wrote: »

. But is anyone surprised? At all? Did anyone not see this coming?

No, but that is because it has been pointed out by many people that this government lacks a consistent, predictable and reliable strategy that investors can rely on for their planning purposes. Basically they aren't trusted not to change their policies.

So now we don't have solar PV construction, no wind turbine factories and relying on the French and Chinese, of all people, to construct nuclear at a high price and with the clean-up costs for _existing_ plant still escalating.

I'm still not sure what Cardew is for as opposed to against when it comes to energy generation but it comes as no surprise that he is the bearer of bad news. Personally I think I'll begin to investigate islanding for my PV installation!

zeupater

silverwhistle wrote: »

No, but that is because it has been pointed out by many people that this government lacks a consistent, predictable and reliable strategy that investors can rely on for their planning purposes. Basically they aren't trusted not to change their policies.

So now we don't have solar PV construction, no wind turbine factories and relying on the French and Chinese, of all people, to construct nuclear at a high price and with the clean-up costs for _existing_ plant still escalating ......

Hi All

Add to that the government's complete lack of understanding of how global organisations plan their strategic requirements linked to how disjointed basis on which UK government departments operate.

Linked to the overinflated cost of new-build nuclear plant, the government have effectively given the go-ahead to suppliers of all forms of generation to double the cost of UK energy over the next decade, a rate of increase which will take the UK from being one of the most expensive countries for industrial energy to being totally uncompetitive. So, why does this matter ? ... it's simple - the manufacturing process for pv panels is highly automated which means that labour costs are relatively low, however, by weight, the main materials are glass and aluminium, both of which are highly energy intensive to manufacture ... double the cost of energy and the transport vs manufacture balance changes, so you effectively signal the end of glass manufacturing in the UK ...

Looking at Sharp's recent group announcements they seem to be running at a substantial loss and have needed to revisit their strategy. The Wrexham plant is reported as running at full capacity, so a further investment in plant&machinery is obviously required. Place the two together, add in the government's signalled ten-year energy price green-light, stir in the massive acceleration in pv installations in the USA where shale gas production has resulted in a divergence in comparative UK vs USA prices over the last 6 years from parity to where we're now paying around double and the accepted plan is to allow energy to double again !! .... the investment has simply been re-considered ... maybe it's to be reallocated to a lower energy cost economy (USA?), or maybe it's a decision to exit the 'low tech' side of solar which is heavily dependant on a commodity (glass) and just concentrate on wafers etc ...

HTH
Z

Cardew

Hi Z,


These days it is government grants that are a huge factor in bringing foreign firms to UK.


That tends to 'cloud the issue'.

Kernel_Sanders

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Plus of course, the supermarkets themselves use vast amounts of leccy 24/7 (around 5% of national demand)

Sorry Mart, I just don't believe that.

j