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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday September 12 2017, @02:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-less-radioactive dept.

Energy from offshore wind in the UK will be cheaper than electricity from new nuclear power for the first time.

The cost of subsidies for new offshore wind farms has halved since the last 2015 auction for clean energy projects

Two firms said they were willing to build offshore wind farms for a subsidy of £57.50 per megawatt hour for 2022-23.

This compares with the new Hinkley Point C nuclear plant securing subsidies of £92.50 per megawatt hour.

Nuclear firms said the UK still needed a mix of low-carbon energy, especially for when wind power was not available.

Both nuclear and wind receive subsidies, but for the first time wind is coming to market with less, so providing the same electricity with less cost to the public than nuclear.


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  • (Score: 2) by Snospar on Tuesday September 12 2017, @03:43PM (4 children)

    by Snospar (5366) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 12 2017, @03:43PM (#566778)

    In the bizarre system of energy production and supply in the UK you can generally only save money if you switch "providers" every year to get the cheapest tariff. This year is the first year in quite a while that I've been unable to switch to a cheap deal and my energy costs will be going up by almost 20%. Presumably this is so I can pay those subsidies that make the Wind power "cheaper". That is not the definition of "cheaper" that I like, generally I would prefer it if "cheaper" was not at the expense of the consumer.

    (There are of course very few actual energy "providers" in the UK, the energy companies are just a massive billing system scam designed to make profit at all costs.)

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  • (Score: 2) by fritsd on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:08PM (3 children)

    by fritsd (4586) on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:08PM (#566798) Journal

    You live in a time of transition.

    You can either suffer a bit so that proper and timely investments into the new infrastructure are done, or you can stick with the old infrastructure, and have a sharp transition (i.e. "crisis") when it becomes untenable.

    Even energy companies are not large enough to carry this burden by themselves (AND they're very experienced at off-loading it to their customers, anyway).

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Snospar on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:16PM (1 child)

      by Snospar (5366) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:16PM (#566803)

      No, I live in a time where evil money grabbing bastards are encouraged to gouge their customers and get away with it.

      The energy companies are making record profits [theguardian.com] while claiming that all the money is invested in "Green" energy or paid to the government in taxes. The figures show otherwise.

      Worst of all, with their complex multi-tariff billing schemes they are overcharging customers over £1.4 billion every year - how nice of them as we transition our savings into their wallets.

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      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 12 2017, @05:43PM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday September 12 2017, @05:43PM (#566871) Journal

        They know the centralized party is coming to an end. Bond rating agencies downrated their debt a couple years ago, because the built infrastructure that was always the foundation of their monopoly is expensive to maintain and will turn into a millstone around their necks as customers disconnect from the grid, or worse, start to produce a surplus that the utilities have to buy.

        If you can, it would be wise to go off-grid sooner rather than later to avoid becoming the guy who's gouged to maintain company profits amid a shrinking pool of customers.

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    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday September 13 2017, @10:59AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday September 13 2017, @10:59AM (#567167) Homepage
      There are businesses that are willing to give you money now for you to use to build something which will turn a profit later. Bank or venture capitalist, the choice is yours.
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