French ‘rubbing their hands’ as Britain forced to import £1.5bn of electricity

Another expensive and wasteful result of ‘net zero’ climate obsession in government, as the much vaunted renewables policy continues to prove fatally flawed, no matter how much is spent on it. One obvious problem with wind power is that the times of peak electricity demand and the times of optimal wind conditions rarely coincide. In other words, variable weather, not properly factored in by policymakers. Relying on averages won’t work either.
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Britain imported a record amount of electricity from Europe last year as solar and wind farms struggled to generate sufficient energy in the wake of coal and nuclear power plant closures, says The Telegraph.

The UK forked out £3.5bn on electricity from France, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands last year, accounting for 12pc of net supply, according to research from London Stock Exchange (LSEG) Power Research.

According to official data, France accounted for around £1.5bn of power sold to the UK in the year to November 2023 while Norway earned around £500m.

Electricity imports were brought to the UK via the growing network of interconnector cables designed to boost the collective resilience and energy security of neighbouring countries.

But closures of British power stations means the traffic is increasingly one-way with the UK instead becoming dependent on its neighbours.

Angus MacNeil, chairman of the Commons energy select committee, said he supported the creation of interconnector cables between Britain and its neighbours because they boosted energy security, but said flows should be balanced across the year rather than largely one way.

“The French will be rubbing their hands – it’s easy money for them,” he said.

“The ideal is for the flows to be neutral overall in terms of both the flows of power and of money.”

Britain’s capacity to generate electricity has been impacted by the closure of coal-fired power stations such as West Burton A in Nottinghamshire last March and nuclear stations such as Hinkley Point B in late 2022.

New wind and solar farms can compensate to some extent but they are intermittent, meaning spells of low wind or heavy cloud – a phenomenon known as dunkelflaute – can reduce output. [Talkshop comment – leaders seem keen to ignore this].

Met Office records have shown that wind speeds last year were below the 20-year average for 11 of the 12 months to December.

Full article here.