{"id":1465,"date":"2012-08-13T08:40:11","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T07:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/?p=1465"},"modified":"2015-03-09T11:23:27","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T11:23:27","slug":"report-suggests-58-increase-in-average-electricity-bill-123","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/report-suggests-58-increase-in-average-electricity-bill-123\/","title":{"rendered":"Report Suggests 58% Increase in Average Electricity Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to a new report conducted by Professor Gordon Hughes, by 2020 the average UK household could expect to be paying a whopping 58% more on their electricity bills because of the Government&#8217;s &#8216;obsession&#8217; with wind power. Taking the average up to more than \u00a3300 extra per year, the report throws into question just how much of an impact the Government&#8217;s green plans will have on the UK.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->As one of the leading energy economists in the UK, Professor Gordon Hughes has been an advisor to the World Bank on their energy and environmental policy. Now working at the University of Edinburgh, Hughes warns that if the Government&#8217;s plans to inundate land in fields, seas and coastlines with turbines were to go ahead, in just 8 years people will be feeling a massive impact through their electricity bills.<\/p>\n<p>He also added that despite this massive wind power investment, greenhouse gases emitted by the UK may not even be seen to fall. With the amount of energy across the world produced by wind energy being at just 2%, there are plans to have it reach 10% by 2020, which is reported to be costing Britain a staggering \u00a3124 billion.<\/p>\n<h2>Huge commitment in technology that isn&#8217;t &#8216;green&#8217;.<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking about the report, Professor Hughes commented; \u201cThe key problems with current policies for wind power are simple.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThey require a huge commitment of investment to a technology that is not very green, in the sense of saving a lot of CO2, but which is certainly very expensive and inflexible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnless the current Government scales back its commitment to wind power very substantially, its policy will be worse than a mistake, it will be a blunder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe average household electricity bill would increase from \u00a3528 per year at 2010 prices to a range from \u00a3730 to \u00a3840 in 2020.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, led by former Chancellor, Lord Lawson, the report has been given to the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change study for the Economics of Wind Power Committee.<\/p>\n<h2>Gas Cycle Plants would provide a cheaper option.<\/h2>\n<div style=\"float: left; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- HEA blog 300x250 --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2370067811734011\"data-ad-slot=\"5331067377\"><\/ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/div>\n<p>Hughes is also backed up by Professor Ian Fells of Newcastle University, who suggests that a much cheaper option lies in combined gas cycle plants, being 10 times cheaper at a cost of \u00a313billion. He also went on to say, \u201cWind energy is the most expensive way of generating renewable electricity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will also cost jobs. We are already seeing some industrial firms packing up and moving abroad. The increasing price of energy is going to be the next big political problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Diverse energy mix holds the answer.<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking out against the claims, a Government spokesperson said; \u201cWind power is a homegrown, secure and sustainable source of energy with an important role as part of a balanced energy mix.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cOver-reliance on any one technology could have serious consequences for consumer bills. That\u2019s why we want to see a diverse energy mix with renewables, nuclear, clean coal and gas all playing a part.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to a new report conducted by Professor Gordon Hughes, by 2020 the average UK household could expect to be paying a whopping 58% more on their electricity bills because of the Government&#8217;s &#8216;obsession&#8217; with wind power. Taking the average up to more than \u00a3300 extra per year, the report throws into question just how [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-tariffs","category-renewable-energy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1465"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2666,"href":"https:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions\/2666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housingenergyadvisor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}