German climate alarmism and activism website Klimaretter here reports that beginning in January 2016 German power grid prices will go up 4%. The increase was calculated by taking the average of 29 large regional grid operators, the site writes.
In some German regions these costs will rise well into the double-digit range.
For a family of four with a modest annual consumption of 4000 kw-hr, that will mean extra costs of over 13 euros each year. Though that may not sound like much, these costs only represent the grid operating portion of the electricity costs and does not include the other costs such the increasing costs from renewable energy feed-in, conventional power production costs and so on, which are slated to jump once again – in large part due to the inefficient and volatile production of wind and solar power.
Green energy proponents often like to tell the public to stop complaining and to just accept the modest prices increases, mentioning that the costs of power have barely kept up with inflation over the past 20 years, and that power from the 1970s was just as expensive in real terms. But what the greens fail to mention is that the huge costs savings stemming from the massive gains in efficiencies from improved generation technology have not been allowed to be passed on to the consumers.
Many modern products have prices that do not follow inflation at all. One example is computing power. The costs of computing large quantities of data today are a tiny fraction of what they used to cost – thanks to technology leaps. Data crunching that once required room-sized supercomputers 30 years ago costing millions today can be done with a handheld device costing only a few hundred dollars. See the following chart:
“The progress of computing measured in cost per million standardized operations per second (MSOPS) deflated by the consumer price index.” (From Nordhaus, 2001, p. 38). From: http://aiimpacts.org/trends-in-the-cost-of-computing/
Though by no means that extreme, the cost of electricity generation also could have had a similar price development, thanks to technology, had it been allowed. Without all the taxes, surcharges and feed-in act tariffs, electric power today should in fact be only a fraction of the cost that it was 30 years ago, and poor families today would be much better off, and would not see their power being switched off because for them it has become an unaffordable luxury. Read here and here.
The reality today is that poor households are being massively and needlessly burdened.
“Though by no means that extreme, the cost of electricity generation also could have had a similar price development, thanks to technology, had it been allowed. Without all the taxes, surcharges and feed-in act tariffs, electric power today should in fact be only a fraction of the cost that it was 30 years ago, and poor families today would be much better off,”
I have serious doubts about that. Are you really trying to tell us, that all countries in the world fell for that lefty climate change meme and not a single one gave the full price advantage to its poor and also to score a massive economic advantage for its industry and exports?
I think the opposite is true. fossil fuels tend to stay expensive, because those that control supply have little to no interest in cheap coal or oil.
While in the future, solar PV power will really be a cheap source of electricity for everyone. Watch out!
sod stated 20. October 2015 at 10:30 PM, “While in the future, solar PV power will really be a cheap source of electricity for everyone. Watch out!”
That is what we’ve been hearing for decades, but as of now that has not come to pass. It’s getting to be awfully boring to watch for what you assert will happen but cannot possibly come about. In the meantime, if solar PV power would be such a good thing, it would no longer be necessary to subsidize it at such terribly great costs.
While there are some practical limits to energy generation from hydro-electric plants, none exist for energy generation from fossil fuel and nuclear sources.
I live in Alberta, Canada, where the obsession to “save” money on producing electric energy from renewable sources is still a long way from being as excessive as is the case in Germany and many other European countries. As a result of that, the cost of electric energy consumed by end users here is no more than eight cents per kWh. Mind you, our power costs did increase enormously in 1980. The amount on the bottom line of power bills for end consumers just about tripled since then, because of the promised advantages that deregulation and competitiveness were supposed to bring to consumers but did not. The cost of electric energy to end consumers had then been 3.5 cents per kWh by the end of 1979, while the corresponding share in tax revenues for the provincial and federal governments had been only a small fraction of what they are now.
Your argument that the cost of energy generation from PV panels (or from any other solar power source) will drop suffers from a fatal flaw. While the cost per square-meter of PV panel may be brought down a little more (but no great savings on that can be projected for now for any conceivable reason), the cost per square-meter of installing the PV panels and connecting them to the transmission grid will steadily and inexorably increase. No one can escape the reality of that reality. Energy generation from PV panels is not and quite simply cannot be competitive with energy generation from conventional sources: fossil fuel, nuclear and hydro-electric plants.
That reality is being fully recognized by energy-intensive manufacturing corporations (e. g.: BASF and aluminum refining). For that reason such corporations are now constructing plants in off-shore locations, whose national economies are without a doubt much better off on account of that.
Well, Walter, in some ways I envy you. I live in Suzukiville (aka Vancouver) and here in British Columbia we are one step closer to Germany than you folks in Alberta. With our allegedly revenue-neutral carbon tax and environmental fees for nearly everything one purchases, it is almost stifling here.
We even have a city employee who goes through the trash looking for household pet feces wrapped in plastic bags as they are concerned that the methane produced by such contributes to our ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions. In the meanwhile, I wonder how much methane is produced by one hectare of intertidal zone in the Ladner/Delta mudflats.
It’s a Bizarro World out there and I am concerned that our new Prime Minister is going to go all in with the upcoming climate talks in Paris. He did call Dave Suzuki ‘sanctimonious’ so there may be some hope, however,if Kirsty Duncan ( http://kirsty-duncan.liberal.ca/ ) becomes environment minister, we are screwed.
“While in the future, solar PV power will really be a cheap source of electricity for everyone. Watch out!”
sod, whenever you wander into the realm of economics, I gather the other fellows here at the trading desk to read your sage economics analysis and prognostications.
For a laugh.
Your economics models are like your climate models: Epic Fail. The octopus that predicted soccer results has a better track record than you and virtually the entire AGW Climate Industry.
“While in the future, solar PV power will really be a cheap source of electricity for everyone. Watch out!”
sod, you young inexperienced wind industry shill; here is one proverb that you should remember.
Tomorrow never comes.
Talk to ANY electric utility executive. The majority of the electric utilities are among the largest hidden tax collectors of any business. Every foot of wire, every pole every building is taxed and included in the property tax base of the local, county, state property tax base. Every vehicle is paying the same property tax as you would if you owned that vehicle for your business. Ever drop of fuel burnt in those vehicles is taxed just like you pay tax at your local gas station. If they are a coal plant, then the “inventory” of coal they have on their property is taxed as “Property.” and these are just the things I can think of at this moment. Then, all of those taxes (and the ones I missed) are included into the cost of the electricity. Next, they determine how much you pay. Most areas place a tax on electricity, just like they do gas at the gas pump, and cigarettes or tools when you buy them. My state sales tax is 7%, thus if I use $50 worth of electricity I get to give the state another $3.50.
And do you think Solar and Wind are going to stay exempt from this cash cow forever? In your wildest dreams it will NEVER happen. Once all of the coal plants are shut down and scrapped, the Nuclear power plants are shut down, then the states and counties and cities are going to re asses these exemptions and magically they will all be reinstituted. Your “FREE” wind and solar will now be about as free as federal oil – another cash cow for the government.
Look at Altamont Pass and the wind boondoggle out there. That was started in 1981 and was a rusting hulk for years. The feds have been pushing and paying subsidies for wind farms since 1940 in North Dakota. If, as you say the fuel is FREE then WHY haven’t they gotten it to work and provide usable electricity in over 75 years? What is the problem? The cost of fuel is only a SMALL part of the cost of electricity sold to you. Reliability, availability and the cost of backup power is and will remain the reason for Solar and Gas never replacing fossil or Nuclear. Look at this news article.
http://www.eenews.net/special_reports/greater_expectations/stories/1060026477
“I think the opposite is true. fossil fuels tend to stay expensive”
Seriously, have you ever take one look at crude oil prices?
Or is it just your green dream?
“Seriously, have you ever take one look at crude oil prices?”
Yes.
Please educate me. The trend in oil or coal price, over the last couple of decades is up or down?
If the thesis was right, we would see a massive fall (exponential) in those prices over time. I can not find that!
So you are really living under a rock. WTI is at 45 bucks.
Who cares if the poor can’t afford to keep warm? Let them heat coke!
You want to make a study of Ontario Canada $1.9 Billion; on smart meters $13 Billion on green energy; highest electrical cost in the world next to Hawaii; built gas plant (electrical) then cancelled for political gain $1.5 Billion; for to sell electrical power to for a $1.2 billion LOSS. Ontario $287.3 BILLION in debt twice as high as California with less that half the population, and you think you have problems. This is what “going green” actually cost. Then ask yourself “What if anything is going towards pollution abatement?” ZERRO DOLLORS..$0.0 dollars.
[…] From NoTricksZone, by P Gosselin, Oct 2015 […]