Revolving Doors At Decc
By Paul Homewood
h/t stewgreen
From Utility Week:
McNeal is to take up the post of chief executive at the trade body in April.
He said: “It will be a privilege to represent an industry which is playing such a vital role in providing safe, secure power for our country’s homes and businesses, as well as tens of thousands of high quality jobs across the UK."
Currently, the director of change focuses on improving the Department’s efficiency and delivering financial savings, his other roles have included chief executive of the Office for Renewable Energy Deployment at Decc, and deputy director of Low Carbon Business at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
McNeal takes over from Maria McCaffery who has headed the organisation since June 2006 and has overseen a significant expansion in the deployment of onshore and offshore wind, as well as the development of wave and tidal energy.
McCaffery said: “I am delighted to be handing over the reins of chief executive to such a capable pair of hands. He has a wealth of experience on energy policy and I have no doubt that he will be a highly effective champion of wind, wave and tidal energy”.
Renewable UK’s chairman, Julian Brown said: “Maria’s achievements as cheif executive have been extraordinary. When she took on the role, 1 per cent of the UK’s electricity was generated by wind. By last year, that had increased to 11 per cent.
“Now we have a new captain at the helm, and I’m confident that he will steer us to even greater successes in the future. Hugh brings an in-depth knowledge of the entire energy sector to Renewable UK at a crucial moment in the development of wind and marine power.”
I’m lost for words!!
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
“Safe and secure power for our country’s homes and businesses”? Let’s be serious! More and more research demonstrate that it’s not so secure as they want us to believe! For example, here are some facts on the effect of stirring: http://climate-ocean.com/2015/K.html. Can that be called safe and secure?
Insider trading?
“… providing safe, secure power …”. I don’t think so. And what about reliable and economic?
Hopefully he’ll perpetuate his skills and achieve similar results in his new position. 😇
So no change of job for McNeal at all then. I was under the impression all the staff at the DECC were promoting the renewable industry 24/7 already.
@jbenton2013 good spot, except don’t fall the meme they promote “renewables” as they leave off the world biggest producing renewable : hydro.
McNeal goes from working for a big PR/lobbing org working in the interests of GreenBlob, to another a big PR/lobbing org working in the interests of GreenBlob.
So it’s a move from one top GreenBlob job to another top GreenBlob job.
That must be a first Paul 😉
With people like that high up in DECC, no wonder there’s a real danger of the lights going out.
… and McCaffery will be moving to the executive management team at RenewableUK.
This job-sharing lark is more sophisticated than I thought!
It would be worth looking at the Mechanical reliability data for Wind Turbines, an awful lot seem to fail prematurely
Also a lot are out of action at anyone time
So you can guess the data is not available
“Development of wave and tidal energy”… Haven’t heard of that for some years….has anybody had any success with it? We had lots of reports of wonderful underwater impellers that looked like aircraft propellers which were supposed to work…did they?
John there was a big post on BH and 2 months ago here
Since then I posted updates (somwhere) about Siemens pulling out of the SeaGen wavepower in Portaferry etc.
“The show stopper with wave power seems to be the difference between normal and storm conditions. I suspect that the square law pressure problems which are an issue with wind power really bite when dealing with much denser water.” @NW on BH
– I suppose one way is to wait until your offshore wind turbine falls into the water, then the waves will turn it.
“When she took on the role, 1 per cent of the UK’s electricity was generated by wind. By last year, that had increased to 11 per cent. ”
This says 8.1% – http://nationalgrid.stephenmorley.org/
see Averages charts
I know who I believe
We have 13.5 GW wind capacity: Its a windy night & wind is producing just 2.7GW ~ 20% of its capacity.
Another good site
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
Yes I wonder how she finds figs that bump it up to 11%, that more that just accidentally including hydro ..I wonder how much of imported electricity is left off the stats or counted as generated by wind ?
And she can pick what month to use as an end date.
Imports should be regarded as generated by coal (BritNed, landfall adjacent to the three coal fired plants at Maasvlatkte, Rotterdam), and nuclear (French connection).
This is just a matter of the blind leading the blind. By all means give me the name of any other overpaid and under-employed civil servant who has ever successfully transitioned from being feather-bedded and myopic in the UK public sector to creating or building anything successfully in the cruel world of the private sector. Thought not, they’re just not trained to do it. Add to this the reality that the renewables business is heading for a fall and I give Mr McNeal six months before his board questions its decision to hire him.
Surely there must be something illegal here?
If not now, then later when he starts lobbying his old mates in DECC for more “renewables”.
It stinks.
It’s how politics works they have no morals.
We are still paying him just by a different route.
With the price of oil predicted to drop below $20 any time soon and considering the concomitant reduction in the price of coal and natural gas, I’m glad I don’t own shares in ‘unreliables’.
shares in ‘unreliables’.
Love it