Feed in tarriff's

Whilst I've been away a lot of interesting things have been happening - mainly centered around the creation of DECC (although that website still needs a bit of work!).

Included within the changes being proposed is the inclusion of feed in tarriffs. Here electricity suppliers are told that, for every MWh of electricity they generate, they will receive a fixed subsidy (in addition to the revenue they receive from the generated electricity).
The current scheme is more complicated and as such cannot give a clear price as to the level of subsidy which it will provide.

Generally I think that feed in tarriffs are seen as more efficient (at getting renewables created) than ROCs. They may also be cheaper.

So far the statement by Miliband on an amendment to include feed in tarriffs requires that such tarriffs will only apply to the smallest (probably domestic) generators.

Extending this concept, sweeping the renewables obligation away and replacing it with a system of feed in tarriffs may be a good idea, increasing the rate at which renewables are deployed in the country, but it may destroy any investor confidence which still exists.

It's passed...

Okay, that £8 billion? It's passed. It's there to be taken.

wow.

Also being reported is that all power generators will have to pay for all carbon credits in the third phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme - but that was likely, and to an extent forseeable.

The cap of 500g/kwhr is also in - applicable from 2015.

I'm not sure if this is law quite yet - some negociation to be done perhaps.

£8 billion for CCS?

Apparently the EU is meeting today to discuss a £8 billion subsidy to help get CCS off the ground.

This is needed - not for new R&D, but to bridge the difference between the cost of the running the plant and the income from the avoided carbon.

As the article says once the technology has been implemented at a few plants the costs will fall - so, if passed, this shouldn't be seen as an on going committment from the EU.
It would be a good thing.

Swings and roundabouts though. The greens have found a way of banning coal, and are trying to tack it on to this legislation. "A second amendment... would ban any power plant that emits more than 500g of carbon dioxide per kWh of electricity generated".
This will not only have the effect of stopping un-abated coal, but will stop all coal (there will be uncertainty over the reliability, at least to begin with, of the capture plant. If it stops working you will have to stop the power station - this means an uneconomic plant, so why build it?).
Simply everything will be replaced with gas, which falls under this threashold, has a low cost and is reliable.