Net Zero relies on minerals for wind, solar and batteries. However, the supply and demand outlook for silver and copper means prices are set to rise substantially and derail the whole Net Zero project. A thread 🧵(1/n) Silver is a key element for solar panels. Last year, the Economist predicted exponential growth for solar making it the largest source of primary energy. This has sent demand for silver for solar soaring and the price has more than doubled since 2019 to $38/oz today (2/n)

We're using less energy because it's so expensive. We're rapidly facing a Trolley Problem choice between saving society or the green blob.. If we choose to ditch Net Zero and save society, how low could energy prices go? (1/18) High prices and energy scarcity are stifling growth, leading to a huge wealth gap opening up since 2006 (2/18)

Octopus Energy has been in the news with a potential separation of their Kraken arm at a valuation of £10bn, and demands for it to stop taking new customers because of an alleged £1bn regulatory cash shortfall. Have we seen Peak Pink Octopus (1/n) CEO Greg Jackson says fundamentals matter, so how does Octopus stack up? Massive turnover growth but profitability has been patchy, requiring £1.66bn of capital from investors. In FY24 generated only £31.4m in operating cashflow, not enough to cover £1bn shortfall quickly (2/n)

Miliband is set to wreck the economy with the renewables prices he is offering in AR7. In 2025 prices, offshore wind is going to be offered £117/MWh, index-linked for 20 years which compares to today's price, set by gas of £73/MWh. A thread (1/n) Real 2025 offer prices for fixed and floating offshore wind have risen 10-11% and onshore wind 3% compared to last year's offer prices. Solar prices have dipped, but these changes mask the impact of contract extensions (2/n)

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) just released their Future Energy Scenarios 2025 (FES 2025) report. It's like a hallucinogenic dream: uncosted plans forcing consumer demand flexibility and relying on uneconomic, unproven tech. Let's dive in. (1/11) Money No Object: They don't optimise their pathways for costs. They’re planning to transform our energy system and calculating the cost of this programme is merely an inconvenient afterthought. Shocking oversight! (2/11)

Ed Miliband is extending CfD contracts to 20 years, offering contracts to projects without planning permission & offering CfDs to support "repowering" onshore wind projects. He's making his CP2030 plan irreversible even if he loses his job. Short thread 🧵(1/n) Nothing says "cheap renewables" quite like extending contracts to 20 years. The impact assessment suggests that extending the contracts will reduce strike prices & reduce short term subsidies, but concedes that consumers will likely pay more subsidies overall (2/n)

The hidden costs of renewables from grid balancing and backup are set to rise to 2X the cost of gas used to generate electricity. It's not gas driving our electricity bills higher. A thread 🧵(1/n) Many have by now heard that renewables subsidies cost us a fortune, about £12bn per year made up of ROCs (£7.6bn), CfDs (£2.4bn) and FiTs (£1.9bn) (2/n)

Yesterday, the OBR released its Financial Risks Report that old us about the dire state of the public finances. The OBR also told us that Net Zero would cost the public purse £803bn out to 2050. But part of their analysis relies on fake numbers from the CCC. A thread🧵 (1/n) The public cost of Net Zero is made up of lost tax revenue and increased spending and the overall cost at 21% of GDP is down from 29% the OBR's last report (2/n)

How did Dale Vince become a green energy tycoon? Is it because wind is cheap as he claims? Or is it through subsidies? Declining performance and expiring subsidy support could spell trouble ahead. Let’s dive in! (1/16) Dale Vince’s empire, Green Britain Group, includes Ecotricity and Forest Green Rovers. At the heart is Ecotricity Generation Limited, with wind and solar farms harvesting subsidies from Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs). (2/16)

UK’s energy policy is failing: high costs, low reliability & environmental harm. A physics-first approach - focusing on EROEI, reliability, environmental footprint, security & cost—can save us. Why we need to ditch renewables ideology & embrace nuclear, gas, and hydro. (1/17) Ed Miliband’s Clean Power 2030 plan relies on wind and solar, cutting gas to 5% and virtually ignoring nuclear. Result? UK has the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world. Net Zero’s low-energy future risks economic stagnation. (2/17)

A friend told me I needed to simplify my articles and produce a Net Zero for Dummies. Well, here goes, the folly of Net Zero in eight charts (1/12) Net Zero is sold as a climate fix, but it’s ineffective. UK’s 0.8% of global emissions means our cuts barely dent the climate (2/12)

Net Zero is a far-left tyrannical Death Star, cloaking state control as climate action. It crushes free markets with subsidies & bans. Time to fight for freedom! #NetZeroTyranny (1/11) On the Political Compass, Net Zero is far-left: massive subsidies for renewables, bans on oil/gas, & Soviet-style plans like Miliband’s Clean Power 2030. No free market here! #NetZero (2/11)

Late last month, the CCC released their Methodology Report that gave a little more insight into their thinking, or lack thereof, when they produced the 7th Carbon Budget. How did they get it so wrong. A thread 🧵(1/n) First up, they assume even lower costs for fixed-bottom offshore wind than the Government's woeful Generation Cost report from 2023. The CCC's assumed costs for 2030 are less than half the value of contract awards in last year's AR6 auction. (2/n)

Last week, the Government released new data about energy costs in the UK & EU, and by extension the developed world. The bad news is that the UK still has the highest industrial electricity prices in Europe. But what else is going on in the data? A thread 🧵(1/n) The chart above is for medium consumers, where UK prices are 89% higher than EU14 median. Large & v. large UK user prices are 132% & 113% respectively higher than the EU14 median. Very large UK users pay 22.32p/kWh compared to the lowest Finland with just 4.19p/kWh (2/n)

The data is in for CfD subsidies in April 2025. Overall subsidies are down from April last year, but subsidies per MWH are up. What is going on? A thread 🧵(1/n) Overall subsidies for April 2025 came in at £155m across all technologies. This is slightly up on March 2025 (£152m) but much lower than April 2024 (£270m) (2/n)

Ofgem just cut the price cap for Jul-Sep 2025. What's been driving our electricity bills since the price cap came into force? Mostly Net Zero stuff. A thread 🧵(1/n) Overall bills (including VAT) including both gas and electricity have fallen by £129 or 7%. Interestingly, those on prepayment meters pay less than those on direct debit (2/n)

The institutions were out in force claiming renewables are cheap in their evidence to the ESNZ Cost of Energy Inquiry. This amounts to an industrial-scale effort to gaslight the public and mislead Parliament because renewables are much more expensive than gas. A thread 🧵(1/n)

https://twitter.com/7Kiwi/status/1923634592549929246

DESNZ claimed more clean power would lead to lower bills (2/n)

The Energy and Net Zero Committee in Parliament is running an inquiry into the cost of energy. I submitted evidence to explain why our electricity prices are so high and how to reduce them. A thread 🧵(1/n) Their first question asked whether the costs & benefits of the energy system are reflected in consumer bills. Well, we can certainly see the costs, because the IEA found we had the most expensive domestic and industrial electricity prices in the developed world (2/n)

Orsted Cancels Hornsea Four and Kills CP2030.

Devastating blow for Miliband as Orsted's flagship Hornsea Project Four is cancelled and effectively kills his Clean Power 2030 plan. A short thread (1/n) Today, Orsted has announced that it is pulling out of its flagship 2.4GW Hornsea Project Four that was granted a contract only last year in AR6 (2/n)

Cheap and abundant energy drove and enabled positive political change and societal development. Today’s energy austerity, unless reversed, will lead to very ugly politics and societal decay. A thread 🧵(1/n) It's fashionable these days to claim that politics is downstream of culture. But that's a result of narcissists insisting that men can become women and everything is racist that ignore the great arc of human history (2/n)

Latest Energy Trends figures show steady increase in wind and solar capacity. But how does this compare to Ed Miliband’s CP2030 plan? A thread (1/n) To hit CP2030, we need 50.7GW of offshore wind by 2030, 29GW onshore and 58.4GW of solar capacity. Offshore wind is supposed to deliver 187TWh out of the total 289TWh coming from wind and solar (2/n)