Green Energy Policies Could Add £300 A Year To Household Bills

Greenenergy

First Posted: 05/09/11 10:06 BST Updated: 04/11/11 10:12 GMT   PA

PRESS ASSOCIATION --Green energy policies are set to add more than £300 a year to the average household fuel bill, according to Downing Street calculations.

David Cameron has been warned that there will be a 30% rise in consumer energy bills by 2020 as a direct result of the coalition's policies.

In a note seen by The Daily Telegraph, the Prime Minister's senior policy adviser Ben Moxham also doubts Energy Secretary Chris Huhne's claims that price increases would be offset by lower consumption due to energy efficiency measures. That, he says, is "unconvincing".

The projected rise of 30% in the average household energy bill of £1,059 by 2020 is blamed on policies like carbon pricing, designed to promote the use of renewables and nuclear power sources.

New obligations on energy firms to provide extra support with energy efficiency to low income homes, and to increasingly use electricity from renewable sources, are also major factors.

"Over time it is clear that the impact of our policies on consumer bills will become significantly greater," Mr Moxham states.

He adds: "DECC's (Department of Energy and Climate Change) mid-case gas price scenario sees policies adding 30% to consumer energy bills by 2020 compared to a world without policies. "

The note is dated July 29 2011 and is copied in to senior Downing Street advisers including Mr Cameron's chief of staff Ed Llewellyn, permanent secretary Jeremy Heywood and policy chief Steve Hilton.

A spokesman for the Department for Energy and Climate Change said: "Reforms will not add £300 to bills. Our policies will both add and subtract from future bills because we need to build new reliable energy sources to keep the lights on, but we'll also be helping people to cut their bills through greater energy efficiency.

"Our reforms to the electricity market will deliver the best deal for Britain and for consumers: getting us off the hook of relying on imported oil and gas by creating a greener, cleaner and ultimately cheaper mix of electricity sources right here in the UK."

Meg Hillier, Labour's Shadow Energy Secretary, described the Government's policy as "a shambles".

"This high-level leak reveals incompetence at the heart of the Government over energy prices and climate change.

"The Prime Minister's advisers are knifing Chris Huhne's policies. All the while, people's energy bills are set to soar this winter, making life harder for families whose living standards are being squeezed, while ministers sit on their hands. It's a shambles."

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PRESS ASSOCIATION --Green energy policies are set to add more than £300 a year to the average household fuel bill, according to Downing Street calculations. David Cameron has been warned that ther...
PRESS ASSOCIATION --Green energy policies are set to add more than £300 a year to the average household fuel bill, according to Downing Street calculations. David Cameron has been warned that ther...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cabinetmaniac
Think for yourself. Question authority.
01:21 PM on 09/05/2011
Nuclear is NOT green. Carbon pricing is not green, Aid to the poor (while commendable) is not green.

I noticed that the cost of externalities associated with fossil fuels is ignored by Cameron and the author.

If you add up all the environmental, health, military and human rights costs then the present fuel policy is far more expensive than renewables.

HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Marchmont
01:18 PM on 09/05/2011
Events in Germany have shown that, when the Greens acquire political clout, they become the true heirs of the Luddites opposing reliable energy policies that would protect both the vulnerable and the environment. The fact is that wind power implies building the same capacity twice over because the intermittent nature of such energy requires a “spinning reserve” of close to 100 per cent. In addition, the gas-fired back-up will run inefficiently as it responds to the vagaries of the wind so the units will emit more CO2 than if they did the whole job alone. The solution is to just build gas-fired plants and forget about wind as a serious source of power because with shale gas about to come on-stream, supplies are almost infinite. Renewables may have a place at the margin, or in remote locations, but wind turbines are closer to being garden ornaments than serious generators of power for the national grid. Wind farms risk becoming the redundant relics of our politicians’ compulsion to do something, even if that something is both damaging and counter-productive.
12:58 PM on 09/05/2011
Hmm...let me see now.

Green energies are sustainable.
Green energies won't require an OPEC.
Green energies won't produce international stock speculation (I hope)
Green energies can be produced at home.
Green energies don't produce stinky smokey stuff.
Unless 1 + 1 = 3 that 300 pds to your energy bill in 2020, will be nothing to what
we suffer in 2050 without a major drive towards them.

To think that our governments are not moving full speed ahead on green energies
today is beyond absurd. I guess it's a testiment to the power of big oil..........we are
such fools!
lastpost
see biography
12:37 PM on 09/05/2011
"Green Energy Policies Could Add £300 A Year To Household Bills"
Maybe we need Vince Cable to redo the sums. Perhaps we could offset any real increases discovered by reducing the amount of EU Drain Geld, and subsidising them with exported energy instead. If we used surplus capacity to generate hydrogen, we might even accommodate those periods when the wind does not blow, the sun does not glow, and the tides do not flow.

"getting us off the hook of relying on"
military means, to get the hooks into those who have the oil we covert.

"It's a shambles"
But on the bright side, there are more than enough ways of turning this around. If we can only find the right leadership. To put that multiplicity of ignored notions into practice.
12:20 PM on 09/05/2011
The question is: how can anything renewable actually inflict a rising cost? The system stinks.
12:24 PM on 09/05/2011
So that the investment bankers can get a quick return, before the paying public realise that the only cost is the infrastructure.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cabinetmaniac
Think for yourself. Question authority.
01:24 PM on 09/05/2011
Good answer

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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cabinetmaniac
Think for yourself. Question authority.
01:23 PM on 09/05/2011
Good question

11:46 AM on 09/05/2011
Dump Trident: build wind farms.
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03:40 PM on 09/05/2011
Can't really argue with that ;-)
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Matthew Harrold
Huzzah!
11:41 AM on 09/05/2011
This is rather a disingenuous comment, seeming that under the Tories the top tax bracket was lowered from £37,400 to £35,000, so he obviously can't be that worried about people being made worse off. The truth is though that rising energy costs will push up the average bill anyway. Fossil fuels are not an infinite resource, and will start to cost increasingly more to extract, so it's far better to pay a little more now to have the infrastructure in place for future generations to not have to foot the bill.
11:33 AM on 09/05/2011
Excellent article!
www.greenplan.pt
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11:23 AM on 09/05/2011
Why the doom and gloom, Mr Cameron? Look north:

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/scotland_increases_2020_renewable_energy_target_to_100_5478/
10:42 AM on 09/05/2011
Oil will not get cheaper over time
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
AllenShone
Hit me with science and facts not anecdotes.
10:25 AM on 09/05/2011
Good, it is time we paid for the real cost of energy. Maybe if green energy were to be subsidised to the same extent as fossil fuels were and to some extent still are, these green energy price rises would not be necessary.
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