Harbour Energy paying off hundreds in Aberdeen after they have expanded from taking over others.

CNR closing down oil production in the next 8 years in the Ninian field which they had bought into as other majors were flogging off where they had got oil and gas easier.

The UK government helps them set up, helps them be very profitable, and helps them with tax breaks to decommission and they bog off because of the windfall taxes.

 

That is OK because the oil and gas is there for the future and future generations that might not p!ss it up a wall like the UK Governments have been doing.

 

Renewables are not going to be cheaper because the licences are with non UK companies to have the wind farms and anything else that makes money and profits and the UK tax payers will be paying them to bring on the investments and clear off with profits and actually the Uk tax payers will pay for any clear up just as they will do for EDF when the nuclear plants close.

Edited 12 April, 20233 yr by toot

Renewables are install once, use long time. They don't have as high operating cost. The technology are getting constantly getting cheaper and cheaper. 

Renewables are only seen as expensive when fossil fuel get all the government moneys. 

Renewables can be very reasonable and efficient if the energy generated gets to the national grid and used and not just shut down because the Government are 'at it'.

The cost of Onshore instillation and maintenance and the safety is much less then offshore and my young lad and his brothers work on turbines and installations. 

There is a lot of money paid to those with turbines on their land like Call Me Dave's wife's extended family members, then the various land owning or energy company owning politicians and peers including Baron Nicol Stephen Ex Deputy First Minister Scotland.

https://www.asiawind.org/speakers-nicol-stephen

 

Con, swindle, corruption, taking the pith.

http://businessforscotland.com/the-great-british-electricity-swindle-how-scotland-subsidises-the-uks-energy

 

Edited 12 April, 20233 yr by toot

3 hours ago, wyx087 said:

Electricity are cheap when generated by renewables. But somehow the price is tied to a fossil fuel that changes due to geopolitics.

It's beyond stupid that everyone pays a single price for a limited resource that changes by the second. 

It's about time electricity price varies throughout the day and only when fossil fuel is used, it gets expensive. 

 

Those who can store gets it cheap...... and what has electricity storage capacity in abundance? 

 

The pump storage is one answer as is battery storage with which the price is falling like a stone.

 

Elon Musk built a 100 MWh storage plant in less than 100 days in Oz and a country with so much solar and the ability to build onshore wind turbines is meaning Oz is going from a very dirty continent to probably the cleanest in a few years.   EV sales also is going from nothing to a big chuck of the market getting quick supply from China.

 

On a personal level my Bluetti EB180 and Allpower S2000 pro given me over 3 kWhs of power and next on the shopping list is the Allpowers R4000 which is 3.6 kWh and has an inverter to handle anything in the house, just waiting for the price to be right which will probably be around Black Friday. Cyber Monday or thereabouts.  pay about 50 to 60p wh storage and only use batteries which can be recharged thousands of times.  Reckon it saves a good £1 a day at the moment but come end of my Octopus Go 7.5p per kWh I may need to look at another Octopus tariff and/or squeeze my use of day time electricity, which is only 40% of what I use, even more. 

 

The construction of the Pump Storage Schemes are oven ready to go once those paying to have it built get the UK Government to stop dithering.

They have to say how much England will be paying for the electricity that England needs.

The Battery storage requires the UK and the other 3 Governments to stop allowing councils to block schemes as well as solar, wind and hydro schemes.

The Carbon Capture is still all about having millions spent trying to win in the lottery that the UK government keeps running. 

Everything is a competition to win the right to fill your boots and the end results just keep getting further away. 

 

Strange that the energy is wanted and it can then earn money for those behind it or running it and yet they always want tax payers money in grant aid and not just buying the end product which is electricity.

Edited 12 April, 20233 yr by toot

2 hours ago, toot said:

Strange that the energy is wanted and it can then earn money for those behind it or running it and yet they always want tax payers money in grant aid and not just buying the end product which is electricity.

Because the market is not balanced, too much money flows into fossil fuel industry.

 

https://youtu.be/EAU5D8hqIUI

9 hours ago, toot said:

The construction of the Pump Storage Schemes are oven ready to go once those paying to have it built get the UK Government to stop dithering.

They have to say how much England will be paying for the electricity that England needs.

The Battery storage requires the UK and the other 3 Governments to stop allowing councils to block schemes as well as solar, wind and hydro schemes.

The Carbon Capture is still all about having millions spent trying to win in the lottery that the UK government keeps running. 

Everything is a competition to win the right to fill your boots and the end results just keep getting further away. 

 

Strange that the energy is wanted and it can then earn money for those behind it or running it and yet they always want tax payers money in grant aid and not just buying the end product which is electricity.

 

The biggest restriction to the implementation of renewable energy schemes is who will finally gets to control them.

 

It seems Scotland will not get its 30 Gwh scheme in the Highlands unless it self funds as the UK government appears loathed to invest over £1B in to the scheme when the SNP is pushing for independence ?  That would be a big financial gift if independence happened. Perhaps the scheme is more likely to happen if Labour returned to being the largest party in Scotland ?

 

Similar with the massive solar schemes in North Africa. The Sahara is perfect for placing large solar farms and Europe has a massive appetite for cheap solar energy but as above which country or which massive private investor is going to but billions of dollars in to those countries in North Africa that may suddenly turn and say thanks for the all solar hardware and cabling infrastructure but they suddenly take control of it and call it a national asset ?

 

Hence these schemes are hobbled and smaller schemes in the place of consumption make it to the build stage and the other grander schemes do not.  It is amazing Dinorwig got built but perhaps UK government and CEGB thought it was worth the half billion cost gamble at the time being in Wales, a friendlier country to  England thought to be in the long term ?    

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 13 April, 20233 yr by toot

Well it officially a mad world.

 

Tested the new hybrid Renault Austral, clever bit of kit, biggish car but capable of averaging over 60 mpg, 700 mile range and base model well priced at £34.6K I reckon.

So I have a 71 plate Zoe that was RRP £34.7k 20 month ago, I paid around £27k for it after discounts etc, and a 72 plate mild hybrid Arkana that was £27k RRP that I paid £25k after discounts.  So I asked for settlement figures just to play the game with the Renault dealer who had chosen me from about 8 customers to try the Austral.

 

Well the Arkana came back as worth £19.2k so I have £500 equity in that car, whoopie.

The Zoe ZE50 Riviera can back as trade in at £13.3k. You what ???  So negative £6.7k trade in  !!

 

Happy to keep both for a while but particularly the Zoe which costs next to nothing to run ie less than 2p a mile on lecky and is on finance at 3.9% APR if I remember, I have savings accounts paying 5.25% so no point paying anything off that.

 

Mad world that is going to see most the car dealer network go down the plan with their mix of finance deals, trade in and sales prices they are asking, 

 

The EV's that are going to be FLOODING the trade are Fleet/ Lease / Motability vehicles.

That is a whole different game of financing / losses / gains / HMRC kidology.

 

The manufacturers need the electrified vehicles First Registered to be sure of getting the Co2 emission averages where they need to stop being fined for all vehicles sold.

So partnering with other manufacturers to allow the higher polluters to be sold.

 

http://fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/electric-fleet-news/2023/05/16/used-electric-vehicles-available-at-half-price-of-new-ev

 

http://fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/opinion/2023/04/27/why-falling-values-are-such-bad-news-for-fleets

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 25 May, 20233 yr by toot

Unfortunately there had been an over correction for used EV price at beginning of the year. From very low depreciation to high-ish depreciation in space of a few months. Currently seems to be rock bottom, with burnt dealers not wanting EV stock. Worth hanging on until things stabilise.

 

Quite a few Leaf 40 Tekna is around £12k at the moment on Autotrader, I'm keeping my eye on that as replacement for my wife's car if V2H works well.

3 hours ago, toot said:

The EV's that are going to be FLOODING the trade are Fleet/ Lease / Motability vehicles.  That is a whole different game of financing / losses / gains / HMRC kidology.

The manufacturers need the electrified vehicles First Registered to be sure of getting the Co2 emission averages where they need to stop being fined for all vehicles sold.

So partnering with other manufacturers to allow the higher polluters to be sold.

http://fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/electric-fleet-news/2023/05/16/used-electric-vehicles-available-at-half-price-of-new-ev

http://fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/opinion/2023/04/27/why-falling-values-are-such-bad-news-for-fleets

 

Renault HQ guy who took me on the Austral test drive mentioned the million Euro fine per gram of CO2 of their average so pressure is intense to sell the EVs and the low emission hybrids.  The Austral had a blanking plate over a Plug in place as in Europe they fit a battery over 10 kWh which can be PHEV rather than the UK non plug in.

 

I am happy with the Zoe, we do 667 miles a month ie more than the 500 miles a month mentioned on the PCP, low APR, super low running costs relatively to ICE, even with fuel at around 140p a litre.  Shall keep probably the fuel length of the PCP.  Just wonder what Octopus are going to do with its GO tariff now the energy prices are going down by about a fifth.   

I will pay off the Arkana PCP which is at an interest rate nearly twice the Zoe's PCP rate.  I hope lots of buyer go for a Zoe ZE50 at these less than half price deals as it is a really cheap car to run and with a decent range of well over 200 miles in summer, 180 ish in spring and autumn and about 150 miles at worse in winter.  Poor Euroncap is nonsense as it is the same shell that got five stars a few years ago and it has quite a few safety feature EBA, lane assist, traffic sign recognition etc.  Glad I bought it and will keep it for a good while.

 

1 hour ago, wyx087 said:

Unfortunately there had been an over correction for used EV price at beginning of the year. From very low depreciation to high-ish depreciation in space of a few months. Currently seems to be rock bottom, with burnt dealers not wanting EV stock. Worth hanging on until things stabilise.

Quite a few Leaf 40 Tekna is around £12k at the moment on Autotrader, I'm keeping my eye on that as replacement for my wife's car if V2H works well.

 

Quite so.  Many dealers will go out of business in the next few months or year or two.  EVs can work with a different model as we see with Tesla. Buyers collecting from the docks and the occasional light service is not going to keep many dealers/garages in business.  I take the big view, just happy to see cheap EVs available to people who may have thought even just a few months ago they were unaffordable.  If it increases the miles driven in EVs compared to polluting ICE cars then a good thing.  

 

I patriotically wanted to get a 60 kWh LEAF but none were available to buy on to put on order, I suspect Nissan are losing money on each one, less so on the 40 kWh one.

Youtuber Electric Viking reckons that Nissan will be the first of all the Japanese manufacturers which will go bust, be bad news for Nissan Sunderland.  We need several battery plants in the UK if we are to have a decent level of car production with cars at reasonable cost, there will be 30 battery plants in the EU.  Plans are suppose to be just on the edge of signing, costing UK tax payer half a billion in subsidize for a battery plant in Somerset, not sure where those batteries will go.  Vauxhall plants at Ellesmere Port at Luton look to be on dodgy ground in the Trade Cooperation Agreement the UK has with the EU cannot be modified. 

 

The new much cheaper battery tech, Lithium Iron Phosphate and the Sodium and other cheap base material will mean the cost of the battery pack will be thousands cheaper.

Future bright and tech improving a many percent each year and with prices dropping despite the recent high inflation on many other commodities. 

 

 

 

Demand for EV is always up according to the EV dealer…… as great as their content, I don’t find this type of video update useful. There’s too much vested interest.

 

Value of second hand Zoe's seems to be stable now but that is an absolute bargain in some cases.

EVM buying a ZE22 for £4.4k, very tidy and battery life still very good but only 80 miles or so range but mega for a cheap commuter car for someone.

ZE40 are hard to find and I think owners are holding on to them as a car with that 160 mile or so range for 10k or less, negligible running costs.

It is the ZE50s like mine which we £30-34k cars 18 months ago and now are valued around £13k is a bit massive.

 

But then it is too easy to forget that many of us got massive government subsidies, thousands for the car and £500 for the charging point plus Renault and dealers were giving thousands discounts and finance terms were good.  Also when running the car one can be claiming 45p per mile whist it actual probably costs less than 10p per miles with energy, servicing and tyre costs quite low.

 

Just have to accept it, Zoe will cease production in March 2024 after about a third of a million having been made to make way for Renault 5 and 4 and Dacia Spring.  If they all help clean up our air and slow down climate change then that is a win and values are nominal but I would be worried for Renault getting back numerous Zoes back from PCP which are worth thousands less than the balloon payment, not good for their balance sheet.

 

Used car sales person video.

 

Maybe others can help.

The Prce Cap from October has been announced and the Electric Tariffs will drop, and the Standing daily charge will rise.

 

Eon Next have not decreased my tariff and have not told me they are, but i expect they will in October.  They have not decreased my tariff this quarter.

?

Have others had their electricity prices go down in July, August or September from their supplier? 

 

I pay the tariff from the current CAPPED price and it is near 30 pence a kWh and not 27 pence.

So if you can not trust the words on that from a salesperson you take other stuff with a pinch of sea salt. 

Not just Table Salt from a discount supermarket.

 

 

 

I paid £65 DD on the 1st and not showing yet on my Accounts credit.

Was going to go to paying £87 a month but decided to go to £90 and somehow they dont want to increase until January.

 

The Tariff is as a tariff is just now in my area, no drop in electricity price as he says, or politicians keep saying.

It is coming though.

Edited 4 September, 20232 yr by toot

24 minutes ago, toot said:

Maybe others can help.

The Prce Cap from October has been announced and the Electric Tariffs will drop, and the Standing daily charge will rise.

Correct, price cap is expected to drop slightly in Q4: 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/what-are-the-price-cap-unit-rates-/#unitrates

You'd probably be looking at 27p/kWh from 1st October. 

 

Your current 29.97p/kWh is the current price cap. It must have gone down back in July. Before then it was around 34p/kWh. 

 

If you go with Octopus, you can change your DD payment at any time online. (I can provide referral code ) 

I was on 35p/kWh for day rate for a few days at end of June before dropping down to 31p/kWh in July. I expect there will be a tiny drop in October. 

 

It's no secret the business electricity rates are also dropping, but it hasn't been passed on to us by rapid charger network operators. Most are still charging double or more what they would have to pay per kWh. Once again, those who don't have (driveway) gets shafted. 

You can drop the DD anytime with Eon Next if they let you and do not say it is too much and then you have to phone them and tell them to do what you want not what their computers say.   But then like the last time I increased my DD the system is having a brain fart.  Does Octopus not have brain farts?     I think of Richard as D!ck at times when he knows the price of everything and not always that accurately.   He seems to do ok.   Waiting on his reply about the Drop in the cost of domestic electricity is in the future but certainly not now.      I am giving the Fixed Tariff offers a miss.  I have no smart meter and an getting no smart meter.     As to home tariff, 3 pin charger from now or maybe lower from  October.   Maybe more from January is,  10 kWh for maybe £2.99.  3.5 miles to the kWh.  35 miles.   70 miles for under £6.    All the man maths needed for many to understand if comparing petrol / diesel with electric.  No solar, no wall box but can get off the road and to a socket. 

Edited 4 September, 20232 yr by toot

I'd like to point out Tesla as an exception to this. Their rates are currently pretty reasonable even for non-Tesla owners. 

 

I've suspected from the start that Charge UK "trade association" is a cartel for fixing charging prices, but I'm beginning to believe it now. I'm voting with my feet on  this one and using Tesla chargers whenever possible. Tomorrow I'm charging at Banbury using Tesla,  ignoring the Osprey chargers next door and the Instavolt hub I'll pass to get to the Superchargers. 

Edited 4 September, 20232 yr by Luckypants

Is the rate anything like 30 pence a kWh for Tesla drivers?     Can private Tesla drivers get 20% vat back like a business user, or BIK so tax payer assistance to be green?  Or green if not using electricity from Gas or coal or wood chip fired power stations? 

The rate for Tesla membership is in 30s and is the same as for Tesla I think. Membership costs £10.99 a month and is worth it if charging regularly. The contract length is one month  so can be cancelled anytime. 

 

The VAT and BIK questions are not unique to Tesla, so the answer is it depends on your own tax position. 

 

I've taken membership for this month as holiday trip is on.  I'll save the membership cost in my first charge, after that I'm saving money every charge. The reason I'm bigging up Tesla charging is the price difference is massive. Banbury charge will cost me 35p/kWh versus 79p at the Osprey chargers next door or 75p at the nearby Instavolt hub. When I'm in France the difference is not so stark, as non-Tesla charger prices seem closer to 50p/kWh but still a useful saving. 

Edited 4 September, 20232 yr by Luckypants

7 minutes ago, toot said:

But then like the last time I increased my DD the system is having a brain fart.  Does Octopus not have brain farts? 

In my experience, so far, no. Octopus webpage gives you a recommended number and just accepts whatever number I've put in. During most expensive winter, there were 5% cashback by Santandar for 2 months, so I adjusted DD to overpaid to get max cashback. Then adjusted it all the way back down to £20 per month, all changes were accepted without fuss. 

 

8 minutes ago, Luckypants said:

I'd like to point out Tesla as an exception to this. Their rates are currently pretty reasonable even for non-Tesla owners. 

That's correct. I had typed about it initially, but thought I can't post good things about Tesla in almost every post. But yes, I try to stick to using their chargers. 

 

Currently they are 36-40p/kWh off-peak across their locations. Peak is typically 4-8pm. Some locations have very low 0-4am. The price changes regularly, almost like petrol prices, so unfortunately zap-map or similar doesn't display most up to date prices. 

 

You can get VAT receipt from the app, or through a QR code on the new V4 screens if paid using contactless. But without 30-day rolling membership or paying via contactless will mean more expensive at ~50p/kWh for same off-peak period. 

They say they use 100% renewable electricity: https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/impact/product#:~:text=99.95% Uptime%2C-,100% Renewable,charging network in the world.  I believe wood chip fired power station are currently classed as renewable. 

1 minute ago, wyx087 said:

 But without 30-day rolling membership or paying via contactless will mean more expensive at ~50p/kWh for same off-peak period. 

Which is still 20-30p less than the competition 🤔