How Wishful Thinkers Are Forced To Reconnect With Energy Reality

One day Energy Secretary Ed Milliband sets out his proposed expansion of the U.K.’s wind power-led alternative energy revolution; the next day, Vestas, the U.K.’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, shuts down a big part of its British operations citing “low demand” and public opposition to onshore wind farms.

Just bad luck or bad PR? Not quite. Simply another blatant example of the ongoing “disconnect” over energy between those suffering from WTS (Wishful Thinker Syndrome) and the hydrocarbon-fueled present and future energy realities.
In 2006, Germany’s Angela Merkel was hailed as the “Green Chancellor” for promising to rid her country of coal and nuclear power in its bid to give a clean energy “world lead.” Three years on and Merkel’s government actively supports the construction of a new generation of 26 coal-fired power plants as well as keeping Germany’s nuclear power stations open.

In addition she wants special protection for German heavy industry via free cap-and-trade permits. A powerful German industry, the need to remain competitive and a desire to work with the lights on all combined to help Ms. Merkel “reconnect.”

In 2008, Italy, to everyone’s surprise, reversed its decades-long “no nuclear power stations” policy in the interest of its power needs. And Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, along with leaders from Austria, Poland and a rolling bandwagon of other countries, also now demands protection for its heavy industry when it comes time to handing out free cap-and-trade permits.

Across in the U.K., the government has been wriggling out of its “clean energy” commitments for years as the country inches toward building an urgently needed new generation of coal-fired power plants.

To help critics swallow the bitter pill of yet more coal usage, the U.K. government is subsidizing “clean coal” technology strategies via CCS (carbon capture sequestration).

But adding $1 billion to the cost of each plant for a hugely speculative unproven technology has already created a politically paralyzing impasse in the U.K. energy strategy.

Investors.com