Energy Prices

[tavyred]

War in the Middle East?
For those still undecided this might be the time to fix.

 

[Grecian2K]

About time too!
Ofgem boss may have to go amid energy complaints, incoming chair says (msn.com)
Ideally suited for a new role with Cadburys - in their tea-pot department.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Trouble at German energy infrastructure manufacturer Siemens. Shares have plunged due to debt coupled with the high cost in the last couple years constructing wind turbines. Material costs & high interest rates are primarily behind the problems plus the ones they have installed don’t work that well.
Seeking a €10bn bailout from the German Government.

High costs have become a huge issue for wind generation recently. The Swedish company Vattenfall stopped building a multi billion pound wind farm on the Norfolk Coast earlier this year because a 40% rise in cost meant it was no longer profitable.

 

[Hants_red]

Didn't Siemens get into trouble for fraud sometime back?

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Didn't Siemens get into trouble for fraud sometime back?

Yes... Bribery & corruption. Always dodgy doing that in the USA.. $800m fine, I expect there was a bit of jail time too for anyone caught up in it.

 

[Grecian2K]

Trouble at German energy infrastructure manufacturer Siemens. Shares have plunged due to debt coupled with the high cost in the last couple years constructing wind turbines. Material costs & high interest rates are primarily behind the problems plus the ones they have installed don’t work that well.
Seeking a €10bn bailout from the German Government.

High costs have become a huge issue for wind generation recently. The Swedish company Vattenfall stopped building a multi billion pound wind farm on the Norfolk Coast earlier this year because a 40% rise in cost meant it was no longer profitable.

Yet another example of the fundamental precept of modern capitalism.
Privatise profit - and then "socialise" loss...or, as the Steve Miller Band put it...Take The Money And Run.
(See also the failed and failing rail franchisees, struggling water monopolies, nuclear industry etc etc - and before the "usual suspects" pile in to try and persuade me that "it pays for your pension" let's not forget that huge chunks of this public largesse is instantly expatriated, sometimes even to foreign governments.)

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Yet another example of the fundamental precept of modern capitalism.
Privatise profit - and then "socialise" loss...or, as the Steve Miller Band put it...Take The Money And Run.
(See also the failed and failing rail franchisees, struggling water monopolies, nuclear industry etc etc - and before the "usual suspects" pile in to try and persuade me that "it pays for your pension" let's not forget that huge chunks of this public largesse is instantly expatriated, sometimes even to foreign governments.)

The board of Siemens know the German government will have to bail the company out. The energy policy in Deutschland is best described as a clusterfkcu. Coal power stations reopening, imagine the row in this country if the government put a few recommissioned coal power stations back online.

T

 

[Hants_red]

The board of Siemens know the German government will have to bail the company out. The energy policy in Deutschland is best described as a clusterfkcu. Coal power stations reopening, imagine the row in this country if the government put a few recommissioned coal power stations back online.

T

Not a good look though. This is Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station just now.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Not a good look though. This is Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station just now.

Multiply that by 35 for Germany. Most German coal fired power stations burn Lignite Coal which is particularly polluting.

Multiply by over a 1,000 for China(and rising)

The UKs burning of coal is negligible in the grand scheme of Climate Change. Not saying that it doesn’t matter, but we need a bit of context.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Not a good look though. This is Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station just now.

Most of that is water vapour from the Cooling Towers Hantsz