Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
A number to consider: £21.52. It's the difference between the price per megawatt-hour guaranteed by the UK government to wind power producers in an auction of offshore licences on Monday, and the price guaranteed two years ago. Then, it was the lower of the two numbers and no one bit. Not a single licence was sold. On Tuesday it was the higher of the two numbers and every licence was snapped up. The windification of UK power is a go again, which is vital because the country's last coal-fired stations are on their way out, net power demand is soaring, Hinkley Point C isn't finished and cold fusion isn't happening. A note on the "contracts for difference" (CfD) which were priced right this time but not in 2022: when the wholesale price of power is higher than the CfD, as it is now, the producer pays the government the difference. Wind luddites who say the scheme is economic suicide are… wrong.
