The wholesale price of natural gas is sky high. This is due to the lockdowns collapsing demand. After the lockdowns ceased, the energy companies didn’t increase supply. This was due in part to Net Zero policies designed to put fossil fuel companies out of business. The energy generators are now taking profits. Why would energy companies invest money when they have no future? Russia has stopped supplying gas to Europe and that reduces supply even further causing prices to rise again. You need to understand that energy prices won’t be coming down EVER, unless we decide that Net Zero policies were a “bit of a laugh”, a huge sick joke by the elites in Government. THAT ain’t going to happen. Why, given the fact that fossil fuel companies have a short sell by date, are we proposing to pay them hundreds of billions a year in subsidies to keep the lights on? Why are we rewarding Corporates with huge quantities of public cash? Why are we proposing “deficit levies” on energy bills which will cripple the poorest in society for the next twenty years?
Enough is enough. I’m an average punter living in UK. Solar panels on my roof, a leisure battery bank and maybe a small wind turbine would mean my electricity bills would be affordable. I would be less of a burden on the National Grid. which, as a result, probably wouldn’t have to burn coal and could reduce dependency on natural gas. Also, small companies would love the opportunity to fit solar panels on as many roofs as the Government was willing to subsidise. Lower energy bills, reduction of demand on the National Grid and an increase in emeployment. Cost? For 29 million UK homes, it would cost around £230 billion and it could be done very quickly compared to other solutions. I doubt very much that a policy like this will be implemented though. You see, there is very little Corporate profit to be had and that’s the only thing that counts. So, we’ll probably end up fighting the “emergency” with more rounds of Quantitative Easing (QE) which will fuel hyper inflation and leave us with debt to GDP levels of around 150%. Millions of folk will still be unable to afford energy, but the Corporate’s will be stuffed to the gills with bailout cash. That’s how it works, that’s how it’s always worked.