In Gridlock I transcribed an interview on BBC Radio 4’s flagship PM programme, with Ben Wilson, Chief Strategy Officer for the National Grid. The interviewer, Evan Davis commenced the interview thus:
Now, if you build a new wind or solar farm, helping to de-carbonise the electricity grid in Great Britain, be aware you might have to wait fifteen years for National Grid to connect your facility to the Grid. In fact, there are real worries that it is the Grid which is the constraint on building up renewable energy.
Broadly speaking the interview confirmed that there are serious issues in this regard, and discussed the steps that the National Grid might take to solve the problem of gridlock.
It seems as though the powers-that-be are listening, and possibly also acting. On 1st July, the Daily Telegraph featured an article under the heading “Pylons to be forced on public to hit net zero goal – Hundreds of miles of overhead cables needed to power electric cars and heat pumps”. The Telegraph article is behind a paywall, but Paul Homewood has the story, and the article can be read in full at his site.
The gist of it is that it is finally dawning on those who are ostensibly in charge of the UK’s energy policy and its implementation, that net zero is about to collide with reality, unless urgent (and potentially highly unpopular) measures are taken. That, of course, is already the case with regard to things like forcing people to buy expensive electric cars that don’t work for them and which they don’t want; making them pay huge amounts for driving old “polluting” cars in towns and cities; trying to force people to use expensive heat pumps, that can’t work well in many UK homes, instead of gas boilers that do work well; endeavouring to move us off cooking with gas and on to electricity instead, etc., etc.
The other part of the equation is that the electrification of our lifestyles, replacing the use of fossil fuels in the home, on the roads, and in the generation of electricity itself, means that we are going to need much more electricity. Generating that electricity by “renewable” technologies, such as onshore and offshore wind, and solar, means transferring the electricity from many more locations scattered all over the country and beyond, to the population centres where it is needed. And as the interview I mentioned at the top of the article made clear, we already have massive delays in the system when it comes to introducing new renewables to the National Grid.
The Daily Telegraph article suggests that currently the UK generates “up to” (weasel words) 14 Gw of energy from offshore wind farms, but the government’s current net zero plans involve increasing that to 50 Gw by 2030. Fossil fuel generation is to be eliminated by 2035 (by 2030 if the Labour Party wins the next general election and implements its plans). BY 2035, some estimates suggest that we will need 50% more electricity than currently, and without fossil-fuelled power stations generating any of it, the only way this can be achieved will be by the rapid erection of hundreds of miles of overhead cables and pylons. That will involve fast-tracking the planning process, even in the face of fierce local opposition.
And so the Daily Telegraph tells us that risibly titled Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is devising sweeping planning reforms. John Pettigrew, Chief Executive of the national Grid, is quoted as saying that:
it would be “incredibly challenging” to expand the existing network to meet the Government’s targets without major planning reforms.
Mr Pettigrew said: “Without planning reform, if you’re trying to get to 50GW by 2030, that’s going to be difficult … You have to see a shortening of the planning process.”
We are told that DESNZ supports the National Grid’s take on all this, and is keen to halve the time period that usually elapses before large energy projects currently receive formal planning consent.
Under the plans, ministers would issue formal guidelines – known as a National Policy Statement – later this year, effectively mandating planning inspectors to approve projects needed to help the UK to meet its targets.
This would be followed by a separate document setting out specific schemes, including electricity transmission cables, pylons and wind farms, that form part of the Government’s net zero plans – in order to put the “full weight of planning law” behind each of the specific proposals.
Ministers would also slash the seven-year planning process to build new transmission cables and pylons.
John Armitt, the chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, doesn’t accept that local concerns can be allowed to prevent the major transition that net zero involves.
“Pace” and “urgency” are the National Grid’s watchwords. It suggests that local communities should be induced (“bribed” would be the word I would use) to support new energy infrastructure by giving discounts off energy bills to those living close to such infrastructure.
Barney Wharton, director of Future Electricity Systems at Renewable UK, the renewables industry body, said that what is going on involves a fundamental change in the way we design our power system. The result is that some areas of the country, such as East Anglia, that haven’t had much electrical infrastructure before are now going to see lots of it. For instance, National Grid plans a 112 mile power line between Norwich and Tilbury to connect two wind farms off the Suffolk coast. There are also plans for 55 miles of new power lines between North Humber and High Marnham in Nottinghamshire.
That’s all problematic enough. As Paul Homewood observes:
And then of course is the cost of all this!
North of the border, the upgrade to the Beauly-Denny transmission lines was the subject of intense and bitter opposition. The damage wreaked on the countryside is well-known, but how many people realise that the cost of this was projected to be of the order of £330M? Or that it represented only a fraction of the work and costs in Scotland? Back in 2010, those costs were estimated at being £4.7Bn. That was then – now the ongoing cost is reckoned to be over £10Bn. In Scotland, National Grid’s remit does not run. Instead, electricity transmission is the responsibility of SSEN Transmission. Its website tells us that:
We are investing over £10bn to upgrade the network around key areas, connecting new onshore and offshore renewables generation in the north of Scotland so the power can be transported across the country.
How much had already been invested, and precisely how much more than £10 billion this is all costing, we aren’t told. But we are told who will pay for it:
Transmission investments are paid for by GB consumers through their electricity bills. These costs are recovered through the Transmission Network Use of System Charges (TNUoS) which are covered by electricity customers and electricity generators across both the north of Scotland and GB.
In turn, that is used an excuse to avoid the use of underground cables, with SSEN preferring unsightly overhead cables in many locations, despite local opposition to the visually damaging impact this has on the environment:
While undergrounding and subsea has less visual impact there are some considerations which need to be taken into account, such as the land required for construction, the environmental impact and the additional costs associated with undergrounding which will ultimately be passed onto the end consumer. Furthermore, the higher the voltage, the more challenging it is to underground due to the increased impact higher voltages have on underground cable corridors and associated environmental and land use impacts.
Other factors are mentioned to justify using overhead cables rather undergrounding, and there may well be some validity to them, but of course none of this would be necessary in the first place were it not for the net zero policy. That is made abundantly clear by an article on the BBC website early in April this year, under the heading “Campaigners fight ‘pylon threat’ to Highlands”:
SSEN Transmission said the project was part of a UK-wide programme of works that are required to meet 2030 renewable targets.
The “project” in question is a new powerline between Spittal in Caithness, in the far north of Scotland, to Beauly. That’s the same Beauly that has already suffered from the line south to Denny, as mentioned above. But that’s not the end of SSEN’s targeting of Beauly, which lies at something of a transmission lines crossroads. As SSEN’s own website makes clear, the plans go much further:
In order to support the continued growth in onshore and offshore renewables across the north of Scotland, supporting the country’s drive towards Net Zero, further investment in network infrastructure is needed to connect this renewable power and transport it from source to areas of demand across the country.
Following extensive system studies, Spittal to Beauly has been identified as a critical corridor in establishing this required reinforcement, connecting into new substation sites at Spittal, Loch Buidhe and Beauly along the way. Network studies have been completed demonstrating the need for a new 400kV connection between these sites, supported by the instruction to ‘Proceed’ in National Grid’s Networks Options Assessment (NOA) Report and the subsequent Holistic Network Design study.
The pylons are bad enough. There are also the substations:
Extensive studies informing the ESO’s Pathway to the 2030 Holistic Network Design confirmed the need to reinforce the onshore corridors between Spittal and Beauly, and Beauly and Peterhead, and an offshore subsea cable between Spittal and Peterhead and also offshore/onland cable between Beauly and the Western Isles.
To enable these new reinforcements, a new 400kV substation is required within a 10km radius of Beauly to connect to the following:
- New Beauly area HVDC Converter Station
- Existing Beauly/ West Balblair 400kV substation
- Existing Beauly- Denny 400kV OHL
- New Beauly- Blackhillock- Peterhead 400kV OHL
- Spittal – Loch Buidhe – Beauly 400kV overhead line
To think that Beauly is said to have derived its name from a comment by the visiting Mary Queen of Scots: “Ç’est un beau lieu”. Sadly, beautiful places count for nothing where net zero is concerned.
South of the border, in England and Wales, we must look to the National Grid. A year ago the BBC reported that its upgrade was to cost £54 billion:
A huge upgrade of the UK’s electricity network would see a host of pylons and cables transporting power from offshore wind farms around the UK.
Power lines from Anglesey to Swansea, Grimsby to Hertfordshire, and Loch Buidhe to Spittal would be built to pull electricity from the sea to the mainland then to homes and businesses.
National Grid ESO said it was the biggest network upgrade in 60 years.
It appears that most of the electricity pylons will follow traditional lattice designs, but some new ones, mostly those associated with Hinkley Point, might be less intrusive. Still, it’s somewhat ironic that a major part of their structure is made in China, using energy generated by coal-fired power plants, before being transported half-way round the globe. That’s all the more ironic given that the acting president of National Grid Electricity Transmission is quoted as claiming that their use is to deliver increasing amounts of low carbon energy and support the UK’s drive towards its net zero target.
As the BBC tells us the grid upgrades extend to Northern Ireland too. The cost of the upgrade required to “help its 910,000 customers connect to low-carbon technologies like electric cars, solar panels and heat pumps” is put by the BBC in its report at £3 billion. As usual, the cost is being incurred only because of the drive to net zero:
The Centre of Advanced Sustainable Energy (Case) said Northern Ireland’s targets for dealing with climate change were “ambitious” but could not be met without major investment in energy infrastructure.
The cost to consumers is put at £10 to £20 per annum, which is curious. The Managing Director of NIE Networks owns up to this cost, he says, because of the importance of being transparent with customers. Which is perplexing, because even at the higher end of that range, and over a period of ten years, it adds up to only £18.2 million, which is a long way short of £3 billion. Somebody else must be paying, then. Perhaps the UK taxpayer?
Adding up the costs of the grid upgrades across Scotland, England & Wales, and Northern Ireland, we arrive at a figure of more than £67 billion. That’s around £2,500 per household, and is only for the grid upgrades at this stage. It factors in none of the other subsidies and costs associated with net zero.
Is there any good news associated with all this? Perhaps – just perhaps – this is the moment when reality about the environmentally destructive nature of the net zero project dawns on people living far away from the wind farms destroying our beautiful wild places (and the bats and birds that made their homes there). So far, the bulk of the UK population hasn’t really noticed the environmentally damaging nature of “green” energy policies. Now, however, pylons are coming to a place near most people. And the public, or at least a significant proportion of it, doesn’t like it. The plans for East Anglia have met significant local opposition. As the opposition website notes, National Grid’s plans involve:
180km of 400kV overhead cables
50-metre high pylons (except in the Dedham AONB, where they will be buried
From Norwich to Tilbury, cutting through countryside, past villages and near historic buildings in Norfolk, Essex and Suffolk
New 400 kV connection substation proposed at Elmstead Market, near Colchester.
And such things aren’t popular. Let’s hope that net zero is about to meet its nemesis.
Climate Scepticism 
Mark,
It’s not cost, it’s investment. Remember what you said about words not meaning the same any more.
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Someone needs to say “Whoa, let’s pause and do a sanity check in all this Net Zero stuff” because it is going seriously wrong.
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Given that Scotland already produces three times more energy than it uses, one has to ask exactly WHO will be benefiting from all this and why it’s needed here. The current plans for 60 offshore turbines, each the size of the Shard, 3 miles from the beautiful coastline of the Isle of Lewis is certainly not going to benefit the people who live there and will be detrimental to tourism, which I brings money into the island (the Western Isles lost their European funding which was replaced with nada by the Tories). Of course the answer is the corporates and their shareholders, many of them with ties to the Westminster Government. at the expense of the environment. Britain is rotten to the core.
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Sam Smart,
I largely agree with your analysis. However, while I am no defender of the Tories (far from it), why limit your analysis to them and to Westminster? The SNP and Holyrood have caused far more harm north of the border.
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Another excellent post Mark. Thank you.
Why are our politicians proving to be such stupid people? They must know that the country’s debt is approaching £3 trillion, that the NHS is an unholy mess, that education is in ruins, that the police service has little interest in protecting the public… etc. Sorting out all this is the obvious priority, yet they persist with the absurd, unbelievably expensive, disastrous and pointless net zero policy. And do so despite wind power and the essential redesign of power distribution turning out to be hopelessly expensive. And despite the fact that we don’t have nearly enough skilled people to all the required tasks. And despite the emerging reality that few people want EVs and heat pumps. And so on. It’s all quite mad.
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‘Collisions with overhead power lines kill far more birds than wind turbines’.
Oops, there goes another ‘clean energy’ argument.
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Robin,
“It’s all quite mad”.
It is, literally, stark raving bonkers:
We’ve got to have electric cars, heat pumps, wind turbines, solar panels, smart meters and hundreds of miles of electric lines supported by mega pylons across pristine countryside, at unimaginable cost, because . . . . . we don’t want any more warm, sunny June months like the one we just ‘endured’ or any more record breaking one day heatwaves at the nation’s airports.
Put these people in an asylum and the long term inmates would demand they be let out, claiming they’re being driven nuts by the new intake!
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I know this post is about bad energy policy in UK, but the title suggests “Piling on the Agony”. So people here must have some thoughts about the UK Covid policy review coming out.. I read this today from Brownstone by way of zerohedge.
“Over the weekend, former UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who advocated and led the use of terror messaging to drive support for and compliance with lockdown measures throughout 2020, choked back tears as he told the Government’s official COVID Inquiry that he is ‘profoundly sorry’ for each and every COVID death and hopes lockdowns will be ‘much earlier’ and ‘more stringent’ during the next pandemic.
One need not have a background in law enforcement to recognize that these are the words of an entirely unrepentant sociopath. Hancock’s testimony seemed to confirm sceptics’ worst fears that the COVID Inquiry is being used as a pretext to institutionalise lockdowns, and it marked an astonishing new low for the COVID Inquiry, which so far has revealed little of value and assiduously avoided asking officials why they found the horrific decision to copy China’s lockdown policy remotely appropriate—though the officials have openly admitted lockdown wasn’t part of any Western country’s pandemic plan and have pondered whether any country would have done it had it not been for China.
Worst of all may be the fact that 17 members of the pro-lockdown pressure group ‘Independent SAGE’ have been asked to give evidence at the COVID Inquiry. For those who’ve been paying attention, this is a far cry from how optimists hoped the aftermath of the COVID response would eventually play out.
‘Independent SAGE’ is not a legitimate political body. ‘Independent SAGE’ is nothing but a questionably-funded group of extremists with no relevant credentials proselytizing the dubious goal of ‘Zero Covid,’ while hijacking the name of an official Government body to fool the public into believing they have some legitimacy.
In short, ‘Independent SAGE’ is nothing but a disinformation organisation that caused unfathomable harm by convincing citizens and officials to pursue an illusory goal using illiberal methods with very real and catastrophic costs. To have Independent SAGE give evidence at the COVID Inquiry means the potential criminals have, quite literally, been given a role in prosecuting the case. The members of Independent SAGE are the ones who should be facing an inquiry; given the scale of the harm, the UK could do worse than to have them all banged up in the Tower of London—at least until we know more.
For the UK Government to stack the official COVID Inquiry with the members of an obvious disinformation group is deeply insulting to the public’s intelligence, and an unsettling glimpse into the lengths the Government has gone to manipulate the perception of public opinion since the response to COVID began. The public did not ask them to put all these members of ‘Independent SAGE’ on the Inquiry, nor can this decision be written off as a mistake.
Rather, it reveals that many Members of Parliament are deliberately working to manipulate public perceptions to prevent the question of whether the UK should have imposed a lockdown from ever being asked—and it begs the troubling question of just how many of these MPs are not mere incompetents, but rather knowing accomplices to the crime. To be frank, it evidences just how vast the communist conspiracy which may have given birth to Western lockdowns may in fact be.”
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Ron,
And to go even more off topic, it is ironic that your rant about the harm that Independent Sage caused will no doubt be disallowed under the forthcoming Online Safety Bill designed to remove harmful online content.
And getting back on topic, why are we complaining about the additional cost of underground cabling? Surely that is an opportunity for even higher levels of ‘investment’. 😉
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The full article by Michael Senger is here:
https://brownstone.org/articles/uk-covid-inquiry-reveals-vast-international-communist-conspiracy/
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The cost of transmission to consumers is minimal so all the new transmission assets could be put subsea (where the power will come from) or underground, without a huge increase in cost. Distribution needs upgrading but that doesn’t need huge pylons
The key to the problem is HM Treasury Green Book … follow that correctly and there would be no overhead transmission. The problem is, although the Green Book is MANDATORY, National Grid, Ofgem, BEIS etc etc ignore it
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And Pyling it on Even Further … you will have all seen todays splendid piece on the Renewable UK Press Release site, demanding loud and clear huge increases in the funding for the so-called industry, as quite clearly they’ve all got their backsides in the glue pot, and cant make enough money to justify proceeding with schemes. Both GWPF and Paul Homewood write it up. GWPF, and especially Gordon Hughes, have written extensively about the inevitability of this happening. The sums are truly enormous.
Actually maybe that will help some in Government to finally concede Net Zero ain’t going to work, as it simply cant be afforded…
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Another excellent article by Kathryn Porter which lays bare the muddle and lack of realistic forethought at the heart of government policy with Ofgem trying to get its sticky fingers into issues beyond its remit:
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Mikehig, thanks – well worth a read. This was particularly jaw-dropping:
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Mark and Mikehig:
That’s hugely significant: the prospects for an all-electric Grid by 2035 (2030 for Labour) look far out of reach. Apart from anything else, we simply don’t have the skilled people to get this done.
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“Pylon row is spik o’ the Mearns”
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https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20230722/281732683971580
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“The looming battle over pylons for green energy”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-66336599
An excellent report by the ever-reliable Douglas Fraser:
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Well spotted Mark. I mentioned it to Paul Homewood. (I loved Lyndsey Ward’s comment.)
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Robin,
Lyndsey Ward deserves a lot of praise. She is a tireless campaigner for the protection of the countryside against the encroaches of “green” energy. She has managed to get some excellent letters in the press too. However, engaging a BBC Scotland reporter of the quality of Douglas Fraser on this issue is quite a coup. Well done, Lyndsey.
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“Ministers to speed up delivery of new power lines for clean energy”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66384672
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Bribery is needed, apparently:
“Give cash to households in path of new pylons, government urged”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66397256
For some people, it seems that everything comes down to money – no recognition of the fact that people are opposed to the pylons (and, for that matter, to wind farms and to solar farms) because of the damage they cause to the environment, and no amount of money can compensate for that.
In any event, the money is apparently to come from the operators. Where will they get it from? From us, the end user.
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“From Ulez to pylons, ‘consultations’ are being used to quash opposition
Leaders claim they are listening to the public, but never seem to hear even the most vocal dissent”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/22/consultations-are-being-used-to-quash-opposition/
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“Scottish Renewables calls for grid upgrade
More pylons, powers lines and substations are needed in Scotland argues new report”
https://renews.biz/87653/scottish-renewables-calls-for-grid-upgrade/
The network would be fit for purpose were it not for net zero….An awful lot of cost, blight and anxiety could so easily be avoided.
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“The next UK net zero battleground is electricity pylons”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2023/sep/26/the-next-uk-net-zero-battleground-is-electricity-pylons
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“East Anglia campaigners gather to protest against pylon plans”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-66970851
From a post on The Knowledge about the recent IEA report:
” A $600bn-a-year nightmare for Net Zero
In the rush to embrace green tech like solar panels and wind turbines, the world appears to be forgetting something rather crucial, says Brad Plumer in The New York Times: the infrastructure needed to support it all. In an extensive new report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that around 50 million miles of power lines around the world need to be built or upgraded by 2040 – equivalent to nearly doubling the planet’s existing electric grids. To keep pace with renewable energy commitments, the world will need to spend a whopping $600bn a year by 2030. Yet with the “notable exception of China”, investment in grids is declining in many countries. As IEA director Fatih Birol says: “It’s like being focused on building the fastest, most beautiful car you possibly can, but then you forget to build the roads for it.” ”
“The problems are already stacking up. Around the world, at least 3,000 gigawatts of renewable energy are “waiting for permission to connect to power lines” – equivalent to five times the total solar and wind installed last year. In the US, it can take more than five years to hook a new power plant up to the grid. One factor is residents refusing to allow new lines to be built in their neighbourhoods. Another is that utility companies are having to upgrade infrastructure in cities to handle the “influx of power demand” from electric vehicles. In the Netherlands, demand is so high that 3,000 neighbourhoods will have to wait until 2025 before they can install any more charging stations. If governments want to meet their ambitious renewable energy targets, they need to get on with clearing this “logjam”.”
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Sorry Mike,
Just found this languishing in spam, and set it free.
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Thanks Mark. Any idea what I can do to avoid this?
Reminded me of an awful joke….
This morning I received an email about learning to read maps backwards…..turns out it was spam!
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Mike, I wish I knew. Sorry.
The joke wasn’t so bad, though. 🙂
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“Ofgem approves SSEN Transmission strategy
Move necessary to connect several onshore wind farms in Scotland operator says”
https://renews.biz/88993/ofgem-approves-ssen-transmission-strategy/
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“Crickheath villagers on windfarm pylon route ‘don’t have voice'”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-67263301
This is a story that we can expect to be repeated in communities up and down our benighted land. Welcome to the world of net zero, where landscapes are ruined by industrialisation and the views of locals are pushed to one side “for the greater good”.
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“Bute Energy offers £6m annual pot to Powys communities”
https://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/23892591.bute-energy-offers-6m-annual-pot-powys-communities/
Translation: “We know our pylons are an abomination, and we know people don’t like them, so we’ll bribe them to look the other way. It doesn’t bother us. We’re still making money.”
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Y Bryn has been offered £8k/MW with no need for any new pylons
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“National Grid to spend up to £19bn to ‘rewire’ Britain for net zero
Networks of new cables needed to power shift to heat pumps and electric cars”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/11/09/national-grid-spend-up-19bn-rewire-britain-net-zero-era/
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If this is true, then we seem to have reached peak everything: peak stupidity; peak establishment arrogance; peak contempt for democracy.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67465841
“Households living close to new pylons and electricity substations could receive up to £1,000 a year off energy bills for a decade under new plans.
It is hoped the plan would convince people to support upgrades in their area, which are needed in part for new electric vehicle charging points.”
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Ah! So that’s how NZ is going to drive down the cost of energy bills for consumers – the government is going to bribe the victims of the necessary industrialisation of the British countryside with taxpayer funded handouts. Of course, bills will increase in real terms to pay for the massive expansion of unreliable and inefficient ‘renewable’ energy, but it won’t be as much of an increase as it would have been for those ‘lucky’ people living next to new pylons and substations. Whoopee.
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Hopefully folk living close to any proposed new bits of infrastructure will realise that these handouts are trivial compared to the loss of value of their properties.
While a substation may not be intrusive, a line of pylons certainly would be. I don’t know what proximity will qualify but my guess is that a line of pylons within 200m would easily knock 10% off a property’s value.
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The other problem is it’s touted as “up to” (weasel words) £1,000 p a. off bills, but for how long? Get the pylons and substations built (by defusing local opposition with bribes), then once in situ my money is on a “financial crisis” leading to the withdrawal of the bribes, which will become unaffordable.
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“Transmission Acceleration Action Plan
Government response to the Electricity Networks Commissioner’s report on accelerating electricity transmission network build”
Click to access transmission-acceleration-action-plan.pdf
The document runs to 87 pages. No need to read it all – the introduction by Claire Coutinho makes for sufficiently depressing reading. If anyone thought her appointment represented a change of direction towards common sense, then think again.
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“UK faces ‘difficult’ conversations with voters about green transition, energy chief Claire Coutinho says
The government faces tricky conversations with the public about hosting new substations, pylons and cables, Claire Coutinho said.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/difficult-conversations-grid-electricity-uk-energy-secretary-claire-coutinho/
She’s not stupid, so why does she (apparently) believe that these three mutually inconsistent objectives can be met? And why does she think it’s appropriate to make that statement, then follow it with this?
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“Labour vows to ‘rewire Britain’ as pylon plans spark row in Tory party
Opposition vows to tackle rural connection delays to the grid while Conservatives call for offshore network to preserve landscapes”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/30/labour-vows-to-rewire-britain-as-pylon-plans-spark-row-in-tory-party
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“Net Zero Requires New High-Voltage Power Lines to be Wrapped Around the Earth 2,000 Times Within 17 Years”
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/12/09/net-zero-requires-new-high-voltage-power-lines-to-be-wrapped-around-the-earth-2000-times-within-17-years/
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“UK minister for building pylons loses role after campaigning against them
Andrew Bowie wrote last year that concerns among his constituents about new pylons were ‘a priority’”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/07/uk-minister-for-building-pylons-loses-role-after-campaigning-against-them
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“The UK minister responsible for the building of new pylons has been quietly reshuffled after it emerged he had campaigned against the structures in his own constituency.”
A prime candidate for NIMBY of the Year!
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“quietly reshuffled” – wonder who the next Joker in the pack will put spades in the ground for this madness to continue?
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“Beauly pylons ‘will be a scar on Highlands'”
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24108625.beauly-pylons-will-scar-highlands/
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Very misleading article, Beauly Denny was never predicted to cost £330m, that was the cost of construction of the 200km SSE section (20km of the 220km route was in Scottish Powers territory) of overhead line only. That was the initial estimate before the parliamentary planning review, after changes to the route, design and environmental factors etc as a result of the planning review it was nearer £420million
It did not include any of SSE’s costs, costs of any environmental mitigations (the project won several environmental awards), or any of the substation work, connections or dismantling of the 132kv routes etc
£330m was always only the contractors initial estimate for construction of the line, a fraction of the overall project cost, the billions figure quoted includes not only all of Beauly Denny but several other connecting projects that tie in to Beauly substation
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Beaulyestimator,
Thank you for your comment. I am always happy to be corrected if I have got something wrong, so I would welcome an expansion of your point, and clarification of your figures. Having looked at your profile, if I have identified you correctly, then I have good reason to believe that you know what you are talking about, as well as being an enthusiast for “the project.”
I confess I found the numbers hard to pin down when I carried out my research for the article. However, notwithstanding your suggested clarification of the precise costs of the works (ie which parts cost what), it nevertheless feels as though you are making my point for me – this stuff is not environmentally friendly (I would be interested in details of the “several environmental awards”), it is wrecking people’s lives, and it is costing billions (across the UK, tens of billions) to deliver unreliable, expensive and unpredictable energy.
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“Lincolnshire village consulted over pylon plan”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crg585l522xo
However, my money is on this being a box-ticking exercise, with the outcome being pre-determined, given what we are told in the next paragraph:
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“Revised substation plans spark scale concerns”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5131mzk87yo
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https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24153383.rachel-reeves-backs-controversial-south-norfolk-pylons/
quoth Reeves:
A few paragraphs later:
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I despair. Goodness knows, I despise the Tories, but I dread the prospect of Labour being in charge. It will be like having the country run by earnest, but not very bright, lower sixth formers.
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Mark, isn’t it worse than that? You wrote that they (Labour) are not very bright school children. However, to me they seem more like arrogant and wilfully ignorant vandals given that they have only to peek briefly outside their bubble of destruction and they would find that the world is full (and has been for years!) of warnings about Net Zero/going green/pylon on the agony etc.
Equally bizarrely, Labour seem to care not one jot that their green dreams are going to hurt most the very people that Labour was set up in the 19th century to defend.
Once upon a time – not many decades ago – Labour was about “protect and defend” ordinary people; today it is, in my view, closer to “seek and destroy”. I suppose this is what happens when a political party of the Left is taken over by the graduate class (with their elite Luxury Beliefs) as has been well described by Matthew Goodwin in his recent book “Values, Voice and Virtue”.
Regards, John.
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John C,
I cannot disagree with a word of this:
My great disillusionment with Labour – a party I supported vigorously when I was younger – is with regard to its abandonment of its founding principles and of the people it was formed to serve. Unless and until it remembers what it exists to do, and who it exists to serve, I will never vote for the Labour Party again (goodness knows who I will vote for instead).
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GOODNESS KNOWS WHO I WILL VOTE FOR INSTEAD
Mark, you wrote the words quoted above in your last posting. This is surely one of the most difficult questions to answer for so many people both here in the UK and, indeed, throughout much of the Western world given that the elites have a predeliction for policies based on Luxury Beliefs, beliefs which align more closely with the policies of international organisations than with the wishes of their various domestic electorates …
Robin G picked up on this huge gap between establishment party policies and the electorate’s hopes/needs/fears in an adjacent thread (https://cliscep.com/2023/10/29/the-uks-net-zero-policy-an-update/#comment-150110) when he observed of George Galloway’s policies, “good traditional values: the main parties could – but probably won’t – learn a lot from him.”
I think the coupling of Robin’s comment with yours (aluded to above) neatly summarises the political quandary that so many Westerners find themselves in i.e. Hobson’s choice – an old saying for a very contemporary problem.
Regards, John.
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“Cottingham: Huge electricity substation planned to link wind farm”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-68476796
“An electricity substation the size of four football pitches is planned for East Yorkshire.
It would link part of the world’s largest offshore wind farm, which is being built more than 70 miles off the Yorkshire Coast, to the national grid.
The 400kV site would be on just over three hectares (7.4 acres) of land at Birkhill Wood north of Cottingham.
Due for completion in 2026, the Dogger Bank wind farm is expected to provide enough power for six million homes.”
The bit the article doesn’t mention is that six million homes won’t be able to rely on Dogger Bank wind farm for their energy, because if they do they regularly and unpredictably won’t have any.
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“LionLink: Proposed windfarm cabling sites in Suffolk are revealed”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-68485462
“National Grid has revealed where it wants to build energy infrastructure for cabling between the UK and the Netherlands.
The power line, called LionLink, would connect offshore wind farms in the North Sea.
The energy company wants the cables to reach land at either Walberswick or Southwold, both in Suffolk.
A converter station would be built on the outskirts of nearby Saxmundham and could cover a six-hectare area.
That would then connect to a substation being built at the village of Friston, also in Suffolk, as part of the offshore wind plans.
Suffolk County Council has called the plans “unacceptable and unfair”.
The council’s Conservative deputy leader Richard Rout, who is also the cabinet member for finance and environment, said: “The high handed and process driven approach by National Grid Ventures is totally unacceptable. They are showing a complete lack of respect to Suffolk and its coastal communities.”
Fiona Gilmore from campaign group Suffolk Energy Action Solutions said: “We know there are better solutions which minimise socio- economic impacts.
“Britain must use brownfield sites closer to London for LionLink, Nautilus, SeaLink and other projects not coastal tourism destinations which depend on their 60 million visitor days each year.”
National Grid said LionLink could power 2.5 million homes a year and would help “meet the government’s net-zero targets, and save consumers money”….”
I’d like to see the evidence for that last claim.
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“How new energy infrastructure could affect East of England”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-68545516
“New offshore wind, nuclear and solar power projects are all planned for the East of England, but how will that energy be transported elsewhere?
A network of pylons and underground and undersea cables have been proposed…
…The BBC looks at how these projects could affect the region.
Norwich to Tilbury pylons
National Grid wants to build a 112 mile-long (180km) power line from Norwich to Tilbury in Essex.
The plan has attracted opposition from campaigners, county and district councils and many of the region’s MPs.…
…LionLink…
…National Grid wants cables to reach land at either Walberswick or Southwold.
A converter station would be built on the outskirts of Saxmundham and could cover a six-hectare area.
That would then connect to a substation being built at the village of Friston.
Suffolk County Council has called the plans “unacceptable and unfair”.
Sea Link
Suffolk and Kent would be connected by Sea Link if the 90-mile (145km) electricity infrastructure project is given the go ahead.
National Grid says the project is needed to create “a more secure and resilient energy system”.
It would also include some onshore stations and connect to the Friston substation and Saxmundham converter station.
Some residents are worried about about the potential impact that could have.
Tarchon Energy interconnector
This would create an energy connection between Essex and Germany.
Tarchon Energy says it would allow surplus renewable energy to be exported in both directions.
A planning application is unlikely to be submitted until 2026.
Nautilus Interconnector
A similar idea, this time between Suffolk and Belgium.
It would feature an offshore converter station, along with infrastructure at either end.
National Grid says this project could be moved to Kent.
In March 2024, The Electricity System Operator (ESO) published a report into how best to upgrade the energy grid in East Anglia.
It warned that “critical trade-offs will need to be made” and no single option would provide value for money, be easy to deliver – or minimise the impact on communities.”
While the article is unusual inasmuch as it represents the BBC acknowledging that renewable energy developments have an adverse impact on countryside and communities, and is therefore welcome, the absence of any mention of cost is significant. It must be immense.
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“Walk out protest as SSEN and community at odds over size of planned substation
SSEN says the larger site – the size of more than 430 football pitches – will only be used during construction and the permanent substation is much smaller.”
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/6401141/communities-walked-out-of-meeting-in-row-with-ssen/
“Community council members walked out of a meeting with power giants SSEN in a row over the size of a planned new electricity substation.
The representatives from Kilmorack, Strathglass, Kirkhill and Bunchrew, Kiltarlity and Beauly accused the company of breaking trust and undermining a consultation.
The meeting of the Beauly Community Liaison Group (CLG) was discussing a proposed 400kV overhead line between Spittal in Caithness and Beauly.
As part of the plans a new substation would be built at Fanellan to supplement the existing one at Balblair near Beauly.
WHY IS THE SSEN SUBSTATION AN ISSUE?
SSEN announced in October the Fanellan substation would cover an area of 55 acres.
But local campaigners say this was extended last month to 868 acres – a near 16-fold increase – without prior notice to community councils or the CLG.
This would be the equivalent of more than 430 football pitches.
Community representatives have now threatened to withdraw from the group altogether.
A CLG spokesman said: “By choosing to announce a major project change without using the recognised consultation framework, SSEN has compromised the trust that should exist between local communities and national infrastructure providers.
“Moreover, by acting as it has, SSEN has brought the integrity of its consultation process into question.
“Given the sensitivities involved, (it) is a matter of significant concern for the affected communities.”
The groups says the Fanellan announcement is “yet another of many instances of lack of transparency on SSEN’s part”.
“It follows protracted attempts by CLG attendees to elicit meaningful engagement with SSEN on this national infrastructure project, on its impact on the communities surrounding Beauly, on areas of outstanding beauty, and ultimately on the wider Highland region.
“Unless and until SSEN is prepared to offer – and can guarantee – such meaningful engagement, community attendees see little point in continuing to be party to the current CLG process.”
COMMUNITIES PRAISED FOR ‘BRAVE STAND’
The group says community councils will continue to represent local views during the consultation process, and urge those affected to make their views known.
Campaigner Lyndsey Ward, who set up the group Communities B4 Power Companies, said: “The five community councils are to be commended for making such a brave stand against SSEN….”…”
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The BBC this morning:
UK energy grid needs £60bn upgrade to hit green target, plan says
** The National Grid’s Electricity Systems Operator
Hmm … knowing how good we are at major infrastructure projects that all sounds simple enough.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68601354
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It’s described as an “investment”, of course, not as a cost.
My maths might be wrong, but I make that a cost of over £4,000 per household over ten years. I would love an explanation as to how that will add just £20 to £30 a year to household bills, as per the BBC article.
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And in any case Mark, it’s certain to cost far more than that estimate. And it won’t be completed until well after 2035 – itself 5 years later than Labour’s plan.
Like anything associated with Net Zero, it’s quite mad.
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Paul Homewood has a useful comment on the above story: https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2024/03/19/60-billion-more-for-grid-upgrades/#more-72410
He makes the same points as Mark and myself and adds some useful additional observations. Two examples:
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“Electricity pylon network risks harming rural Kent”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c164k8lpkdko
“A new line of towering electricity pylons cutting through rural Kent has been outlined by National Grid.
But campaigners have warned the series of pylons to connect Kent to offshore wind farms would “trash” an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The pylons, which would be at least 36m (118 ft) tall, would be erected between Richborough and Sellindge.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England said the proposals are “unacceptable” and would harm the Kent Downs National Landscape.
National Grid’s Electricity System operator (ESO) has published a report called “Beyond 2030”, which proposes a £58 billion investment in the electricity grid to meet the growing and decarbonising demand for electricity in Great Britain by 2035.
The report recommends new offshore infrastructure to link Kent to offshore wind farms in Scotland and Suffolk.
ESO said pylon towers are “cheaper, more flexible and vital” to transport power from where it is generated.
Development consent is required for most overhead lines in England and planning authorities have the right to object to an application.
The CRPE said it understands “the importance of decarbonising our energy supply”, but there “has to be limits”…”
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If only all these people and groups opposing one facet of Net Zero would unite and oppose the whole, this thing would be “over by Christmas.”
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Jit, I’m sure you’re absolutely correct. I would say that net zero’s day will be over when organisations like the CPRE openly oppose net zero, rather than still genuflecting thus: “The CRPE said it understands “the importance of decarbonising our energy supply, but….”. When the “but” becomes the need, and ceases to be a mere qualification to the need for, or importance of, net zero/decarbonisation, then we will be winning.
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“More large cables planned – National Grid”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9ez1dgkr01o
“Plans have been announced for more large electricity cables to be installed across Lincolnshire.
National Grid has unveiled a proposal for two cables to travel 400 miles on the floor of the North Sea from Scotland to England, coming ashore on the Lincolnshire coast.…
...The project forms part of what National Grid calls The Great Grid Upgrade.
The company said the cables were needed because the existing system did not have the capacity to transport the amount of electricity being produced by windfarms in Scotland...
…The proposal is in addition to, but separate from, a plan to send power, via pylons, across the Lincolnshire Wolds – a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – which Lincolnshire County Council has already strongly objected to.…”
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“Electricity stations plan ‘too big for the area'”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c14k8rjzkkzo
Three large new electricity substations could be built on over 30 acres of farmland in west Wales.
National Grid Electricity Transmission have drawn up initial plans for a 400kV station and two 132kV stations for National Grid customers at the same site, occupying 12 fields.
But one local councillor has claimed that the development near the village of Llandyfaelog in Carmarthenshire is “too big for the area”.
National Grid said its new substation is needed to “strengthen the network and connect clean energy in the area”.
And:
“More electricity cables proposed for Lincolnshire”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjjep1ggx4lo
Proposals have been unveiled for another set of electricity cables to come ashore on the Lincolnshire coast.
The project would bring power 400km (250 miles) from a Scottish windfarm along a cable laid on the sea bed which would then be routed underground when it reached land.
The cable would terminate at two grid connection points in central and southern Lincolnshire.The BBC has approached the developers, Ossian Array, for a comment.
The cable would be laid from the proposed Ossian Array floating windfarm, which is 84km (52 miles) off the east coast of Scotland.
The BBC understands the latest cable plans will be discussed at Lincolnshire County Council’s (LCC) executive committee meeting on Wednesday.
Prior to this latest proposal, National Grid announced plans for three electricity cable schemes as part of what it calls The Great Grid Upgrade.
They include an overland pylon route from Grimsby to Walpole, two underground cable routes running 100km (62 miles) across Lincolnshire and five large electricity substations.
LCC has made a formal objection to the pylon scheme.
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“Pylons plan has ‘stolen my happiness'”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jkjnv8k90o
Plans to build a row of pylons near a woman’s home have “stolen” her happiness, she said.
National Grid wants to put up a 114 mile-long (184km) power line from Tilbury in Essex to Norwich, to carry electricity from offshore wind farms.
Gillian Palmer, who said the pylons would be built 200m (656ft) from her house near Bunwell, south Norfolk, said the proposal had already affected her daily life....
...The Norwich to Tilbury project, external would run between the existing substations at Norwich, Bramford in Suffolk and Tilbury, as well as connecting to new offshore wind farms.
The pylons would be 50m-high (164ft).
Mrs Palmer said: “I think this development, even the prospect of it, has stolen a lot of my happiness.
“I think of it every day. It’s impossible for me to exist in the countryside I love without imagining these horrible, huge pylons dominating everything and spoiling what we hold dear.”…
…Duncan Forrest also lives in Low Common and said the proposed pylon route would cut across a field at the back of his garden.
“It’s devastating,” he said. “This is affecting people’s mental health.
“Our property price will be devalued enormously, perhaps 30% or 50% or even be unsaleable.
“It’s going to change everything irrevocably for generations.”…
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Pylons of course, plus other industrial development of the beautiful British countryside, has been blighting lives and wrecking natural landscapes for many decades. The difference is, such development was in the past largely necessary in the name of ‘progress’ and a growing population requiring access to electricity and other services. No doubt there are many instances where cost cutting resulted in avoidable greater harm to the environment and the lives of residents. What we have now though is a wholesale destructive policy of huge infrastructure build which is blatantly unnecessary, anti-progress, anti-human, anti-environment and quite frankly insanely ideological, which is also being driven by vast (taxpayer subsidised) profits on offer to ‘Green’ companies vested in the ideological quest to ‘save the planet’. What we have now is a crime against humanity and the environment being perpetuated in plain sight, which is largely unchallengeable because the ‘necessity’ argument is couched in terms of the unavoidable need to prevent ‘climate breakdown’ which is deemed to be a certainty because The Science and ‘simple physics’. I really feel for each and every person whose lives and health are being blighted by this madness.
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“Public get say on wind farm beach cable plans”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nn50p4g3yo
The public may get their say, but will anybody listen?
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