What The BBC Forgot To Tell You About Dogger Bank

By Paul Homewood

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-31512089

 

From the BBC:

 

The government has approved plans for what is believed to be one of the world’s largest offshore wind projects.

Dogger Bank Creyke Beck A and B would be built 77 miles (125km) off the Yorkshire coast.

Forewind Ltd said it would consist of 400 wind turbines producing up to 2,400 MW of electricity, enough to power nearly two million homes.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said the development had the potential to support hundreds of jobs.

Mr Davey said: "Making the most of Britain’s home grown energy is creating jobs and businesses in the UK, getting the best deal for consumers and reducing our reliance on foreign imports.

"Wind power is vital to this plan, with £14.5bn invested since 2010 into an industry which supports 35,400 jobs."

Forewind said it believed the project could generate between 4,000 and 5,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The offshore farm would connect into the national grid at an existing substation at Creyke Beck, near Cottingham, East Yorkshire, the developers said.

The company has already spent £60m on initial surveys and planning.

Construction on the site is expected to start in 2019.

 

For some reason, neither the BBC nor Mr Davey thought to tell us how much this will cost us all in subsidies! So let’s crank the numbers.

 

 

• Assuming  capacity utilisation of 35%, the turbines will produce 7.35 TWh a year, or about 2% of UK needs. (Not for the first time, the BBC/Davey mislead by quoting how many homes will be supplied, ignoring the fact that two thirds of power is consumed by non-domestic users).
• The guaranteed strike price to be paid to Dogger Bank will be £140/MWh, based on 2012 prices. This will be the equivalent of about £147 at current prices.
• Market wholesale prices of electricity are running well below £50/MWh, down to £44 in January.

 

http://www.catalyst-commercial.co.uk/reports/60/catalyst-business-energy-market-brief-february-2015/

 

• Taking the more conservative price of £50/MWh, however, the subsidy cost of £97/MWh will total £713 million a year.
• This strike price, which is inflation linked, will be guaranteed for 15 years, so the total lifetime subsidy will amount to £10.7 billion, all to be paid for by those lucky consumers. This is of course in addition to the value of electricity produced.
• On top of all this is the unknown cost of connecting all these turbines to the grid.

 

Meanwhile, across in Manchester, Alstom and DF Energy are building a state of the art gas power station at Carrington. Rated at 880 MW, this will produce a similar amount of electricity as Dogger Bank, as and when needed, and with no subsidy whatever.

Welcome to La La Land!