This quick and dirty piece of work is critically important for UK’s short term policy decision making on energy. Think Hinckley, Swansea tidal barrage, solar, offshore and onshore wind and fracking. These two commentaries provide the backdrop to the review and what is at stake. One wonders how much the scale of damage climate change is doing to natural capital will figure in his thinking.
Carbon Brief The UK government has asked Prof Dieter Helm, an economist at the University of Oxford, to carry out an energy cost review and report back by the end of October. The idea for a review was first mooted in the Industrial Strategy green paper published in January. This was later broadened in the Conservative Party general election manifesto, which set an ambition to have the “lowest energy costs in Europe, both for households and business”. The terms of reference for the review sets it in the context of meeting legally binding UK carbon targets. Carbon Brief runs through the review’s terms and the wider political context, as well as revisiting Prof Helm’s strongly held views on energy policy. Click here to read more
Renewable power critic is chosen to head energy price review
The Guardian ‘An academic who is a vocal critic of the price of renewable power is the government’s preferred choice to head a review of the financial cost of energy in the UK.
Dieter Helm, an economist at the University of Oxford, has been chosen by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to carry out the review, the Guardian has learned. The Conservative manifesto promised that the resulting report would be the first step towards “competitive and affordable energy costs”. Theresa May is among those in the government taking an interest in the cost-of-energy review, which will examine how power prices can be kept down while meeting the UK’s carbon targets and keeping the lights on.
But the choice of Helm, author of a new book on the slow demise of oil companies in the face of energy trends, will be controversial in some quarters because of his criticism of wind and solar power. While acknowledging that renewables are remaking the energy landscape, the professor of energy has criticised the cost of today’s windfarms and solar technology, calling them “expensive” and highlighting the “sheer cost” of electricity generated from renewable sources.
Helm has also suggested the existing generation of green energy is not enough to significantly cut emissions. “Current renewables like wind turbines, rooftop solar and biomass stand no serious chance of making much difference to decarbonisation. It’s simply a matter of scale,” he wrote in the Spectator magazine. Instead, Helm believes funding should be directed at next generation renewable technologies, such as more efficient solar panels. He also backs emerging technologies such as smart grids and battery storage.
Hannah Martin, head of energy at Greenpeace UK, said: “Dieter has a well-known preference for gas and has historically failed to grasp the full potential of renewables.
“At a time when the costs of offshore wind and solar are plummeting this review needs somebody with the vision to grasp the opportunities offered by clean energy to provide jobs, lower bills and slash carbon pollution.”
Other figures believed to have been in the frame for the job included Lord Turner, the former chair of a government advisory body, the Committee on Climate Change, who recently told the Guardian that Tory policy on onshore wind power was endangering cheap energy in the UK.
However, concerns that the review might be tilted against renewables could be allayed by Helm’s choice of colleagues to work on the report. The Guardian understands that he will be aided by a former boss of the National Grid, Steve Holliday, who is a proponent of decentralised energy including batteries, and Richard Nourse of Greencoat Capital, an investment fund supporting clean energy. Rounding out the proposed team would be Jim Gao, an engineer at an artificial intelligence company, Deepmind, owned by Google, which has been an enthusiastic supporter of renewables.’
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