The Alternative Green Energy Thread

thevilla

I reckon you'd be mad to install a gas supply simply for cooking and maybe a fire. Saves the builder a lot plus £100 pa standing charge for the owner.

QrizB

Bizarrely, gas boilers are banned in new builds but not gas hobs.

Boilers aren't banned until March 2027, it seems. Lobbyists got their way.

I reckon you'd be mad to install a gas supply simply for cooking and maybe a fire.

We did, in our previous house. Mrs Sheddi wanted to cook on gas and so we had a supply connected just for that. Property had storage heaters.

JKenH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81943788#Comment_81943788

Yes, that’s technically correct. It’s more a de facto ban as you have to meet emissions reductions which can’t be achieved just with a gas boiler so the default option is a heat pump. As with the ZEV mandate, there are, though, work rounds such as installing solar panels and waste water heat recovery systems.

JKenH

A couple of days ago an article in the Guardian suggested that renewables generators would face an increased windfall tax and yesterday shares in renewables companies such as UKWind and SSEN fell. (FWIW I took the opportunity to top up my UKW holding as I believe legacy wind contracts are still a gold mine.) Today I heard on the news that HMG will announce plans to decouple electricity prices from gas, which according to this Guardian article will save householders £80 a year. Surely it must be more than that - wasn’t an £300 cut in energy bills promised by 2030. If decoupling from gas prices is only saving £80 where will the other £220 saving come from.

Rachel Reeves to raise windfall tax on low-carbon electricity generators

Rachel Reeves is poised to raise the government’s windfall tax on low-carbon electricity generators to help limit UK household energy bills, the Guardian understands.

The chancellor is ready to hike the levy introduced in 2022 to target the excess profits made by the owners of older renewable energy and nuclear plants as electricity market prices soared after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

She could announce the plans to raise the so-called electricity generator levy as early as Tuesday, alongside a consultation on “radical” proposals to permanently weaken the link between soaring gas market prices and the cost of Britain’s electricity for the long term.

A separate proposal set out by the Stonehaven consultant Adam Bell, the government’s former head of strategy at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, includes the “radical step” of removing gas plants from the market and holding them in strategic reserve to be fired up when needed without distorting the overall cost of electricity in the wholesale market.

Bell said the plan, which could take £80 a year off energy bills, would be “a transfer of value from producers to consumers to a degree we haven’t seen for 20 to 30 years” by helping consumers to benefit from the energy transition.

Rachel Reeves to raise windfall tax on low-carbon electricity generators | Energy industry | The Guardian

michaels

Seems to be using the threat of a tax increase to force suppliers into long term contracts at below market rates, not surprisingly the gains to consumers are small

JKenH

Rachel Reeves to raise windfall tax on low-carbon electricity generators

I have moved this post to the Energy board. To avoid duplication please leave any comments on that board.Link to post on Energy board:

Link: 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6307202/energy-news-in-general

JKenH

Hi, sorry @michaels I have moved the post to the Energy board. It took me a while to work out how to do the link.

Could you continue any discussion on that board please to avoid duplication.

NedS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81971563#Comment_81971563

My understanding is that the share price drop this week was related to the government's recent announcement to remove the Carbon Price Support (CPS) from April 2028 causing a ~3.8% drop in NAV:

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-04-16/hcws1519

https://www.theaic.co.uk/aic/news/industry-news/renewable-funds-says-scrapping-carbon-tax-will-knock-up-to-38-off-asset

As a fellow investor in green renewable technology, I am confounded by the government's actions to continually destroy value in the sector. This bunch were supposed to be the ones who were supportive of renewables!

JKenH

Thanks, that announcement had slipped past me. I am a bit surprised it didn’t receive more publicity. UKW’s share price had been doing quite nicely up to 107p on 14 April but had dropped back to 96p yesterday and recovered a bit today. I am still sitting on an overall loss (ignoring dividends which yield around 10%).

NedS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81972151#Comment_81972151

I'm a long time investor in UKW.

If you look at the long term performance (last 10 years), and try to see through the peaks and troughs, NAV has risen by around 30% (104.5 to 136.1) over the last 10 years, which hasn't quite matched inflation but we've also been compensated with that healthy dividend rising by RPI inflation, so overall I would say that the trust has largely delivered on it's promise. Clearly the current issue for the sector is the large discounts to NAV and the concomitant inability to raise capital for further investment, to which government policy is not helping!

Obviously there have been some massive ups and downs en route. Like you, I still see value in a trust that is able to deliver a 10% dividend income, rising with inflation and able to reinvest excess income to maintain capital values over the long term. It turns out the risks are higher, and different, to what I perceived when I first invested, but as someone who is now retired, I value the inflation-linked income stream. I suspect there will be plenty more bumps along the road, but I still smile every time I look out of the window and see a wind turbine spinning.

The alternative is a 20 year gilt at 5.5%, which although 'risk-free', has no protection against inflation for either the coupon or the principal (capital), and UK inflation stands at 75% over the last 20 years. The inflation risk cannot be understated, IMHO.