Latest news with #REF
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Raise taxes or gas bills to save net zero, Miliband urged
Ed Miliband must consider raising taxes or gas bills if the UK is to have any hope of hitting net zero, the Government's climate change quango has warned. To ensure his flagship policy succeeds, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said the Energy Secretary needs to remove green levies from household power costs. However, to pay for this, it said the levies should be shifted onto gas bills or covered by general taxation. The quango stopped short of saying which one it preferred. The recommendation was part of a new report demanding a rethink of power bills across the UK amid mounting scrutiny of Mr Miliband's bid to hit net zero by 2050. The quango said it was concerned that high electricity prices were preventing households from buying heat pumps and electric cars, which in turn was holding back the green energy transition. As a result, it said ministers 'should remove policy costs and levies from electricity bills' and shift the burden elsewhere. Green levies have proven increasingly controversial in recent years as they have been added to bills to help support wind, solar and other renewables projects. Independent estimates suggest there are around a dozen levies adding £18bn a year to power bills, with the CCC claiming they must be removed to help ease the financial burden on consumers. It said: 'Making electricity cheaper, through rebalancing prices to remove policy levies from electricity bills, is a key recommendation the committee have made to the UK Government.' The request forms part of a broader warning that the UK is making too little progress on meeting its carbon emission reduction targets. This is a particular problem in Scotland, which has set itself a target of hitting net zero by 2045 – five years before the rest of the UK. To achieve, the CCC said that 1m Scottish homeowners must be persuaded to replace their oil and gas boilers with heat pumps by 2035 Over the same period, it said 1.8m Scottish drivers also needed to replace their petrol and diesel cars or vans with electric vehicles. Similar adoption rates are also required in the rest of the UK, as the CCC said that by 2040, half of UK homes should have a heat pump, compared to around 1pc in 2023. 'This requires the annual rate of heat pump installations in existing residential properties to rise from 60,000 in 2023 to nearly 450,000 by 2030 and around 1.5m by 2035,' it said. However, the CCC said this transition will never happen unless levies are removed from power bills. The cost of those levies was totted up for the first time in two reports published this month, one by energy analyst Kathryn Porter and the other by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), a charity. Ms Porter calculated that 10 subsidies were adding £18bn to bills, while REF reached a total of £12bn. Ms Porter said: 'Ed Miliband claims that renewables are cheap and will lead to lower bills. This sounds great, but unfortunately is not true. 'The UK has the highest industrial electricity prices in the world and the fourth highest domestic electricity prices, with many of the costs paid by consumers resulting from policy choices [levies] designed to support renewable generation.' The CCC said it had modelled two alternative ways of replacing the levies on power bills. One would be to move the charges solely on to gas bills, which would drive up the running costs for gas boilers and cookers. The second approach would see the cost of energy levies added to general taxation. However, a spokesman stressed that it did not have a preference on the best way of raising money: 'We aren't policy prescriptive about where these costs go – there are lots of different ways this could be done. 'The overall point we're making is that cheaper electricity will mean that using electric products – for both households and businesses – will become cheaper.' Critics say the better solution would be to cut subsidies overall. John Constable, director of REF, said: 'The CCC proposes to 'make electricity cheaper' by moving subsidy costs from energy bills to taxes. 'Of course, this does not actually make electricity cheaper, it just forces somebody else to pay, in this case taxpayers who are already at breaking point. The economically and morally correct solution is to cut the subsidies to renewable generators.' Richard Tice, Reform energy spokesman, added: 'The great renewable con is rapidly being exposed as more expensive.' A government spokesman said: 'Our clean power mission is the route to energy security, protecting families by bringing bills down for good and creating good jobs. 'We will continue to work together with all the devolved governments to deliver our clean energy superpower mission and accelerate to net zero in a way that treads lightly on people's lives.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Rochester Education Foundation marks 20 years of student support
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The Rochester Education Foundation celebrated 20 years of providing resources to city students at Thursday's gala. The REF serves more than 20,000 students in the Rochester area through four core programs providing help with reading and literacy, music and arts, and even financial aid guidance when it comes to applying for colleges. One student we spoke with shared about his experience with the foundation as an ambassador at his school. 'I've been helping others by advocating for what the ref does, by helping them fill out the FAFSA form for college and what not, also how they operate in schools like mine by donating instruments and spreading joy through their many different programs,' World of Inquiry School No. 58 Student Ambassador Trevor Wiggins said. A familiar face was also in attendance — News 8's own Natalie Kucko was the emcee for the night. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Net zero subsidies cost British households £280 a year
Britain's green energy subsidies have added an estimated £280 to households' energy bills, research has found. Levies used to encourage construction of wind farms, solar parks and other renewables have added £25.8bn a year to energy bills paid by both households and industry, according to a study from the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF). The charity said the cost of the subsidies were a key factor in the UK's sky-high electricity prices and blamed them for accelerating the decline of British industry. John Constable, REF's director, said: 'Renewables subsidies are now costing £25.8 bn per year – or over £900 per household annually – about one third of which, £280, will hit the average domestic electricity bill directly. 'The remainder, £650, impacts households through general cost of living increases – as businesses like supermarkets recover their share of the green subsidy costs through increased prices. 'This is intolerable. It simply can't go on.' REF's estimate of the direct cost of green energy subsidies on household bills is strikingly similar to the £300 that Labour promised bills would decrease by if the party came to power and moved Britain's energy system to renewables. That claim has become a source of controversy since their election win last year, with Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, repeatedly challenged to show bills are going down. Average bills rose by 6.4pc, or £111 a year, when the latest energy price cap took effect last month. A Government spokesman disagreed with the REF figures used in the report and said it 'ignores the benefits of clean power and significantly misleads on the cost of renewables'. REF analysed the cost of 10 separate subsidy schemes imposed on homes and businesses by successive governments since 2002. The report, which was based on government data, is thought to be the first to draw together the cost of the UK's many green subsidies and the levies that support them. The most expensive subsidy was the Renewable Obligation scheme set up in 2002, which offers wind solar and other renewable producers guaranteed subsidies for two decades after they start generating. It cost an estimated £6.8bn in 2023. Its surging costs saw it blocked for new entrants in 2017, but companies accepted before then can still get payments up to 2037. It currently adds £89.26 to the average domestic fuel bill, according to separate data from analysts Cornwall Insight. REF said the total £25.6bn cost of such subsidies now accounts for more than a third of the £71bn spent on electricity in the UK in 2023, the most recent year it looked at. It means such subsidies are key factors in setting the UK's power prices, which are among the world's highest. It said: 'There can be little doubt that renewable electricity subsidies are a significant factor in the cost of living crisis and are very likely to be an important element underlying the weak growth in productivity in the UK economy since the financial crisis of 2008.' The latest Government analysis of electricity demand in 2024 said industrial power consumption had fallen by 22pc since 2010, while commercial and domestic consumption both fell by 22pc. Andrew Bowie, the Conservative shadow energy secretary, said: 'Ed Miliband can try to perpetuate the fiction that his net zero targets will save people money, but this research reveals the true cost of prioritising climate targets over cheap energy. 'Under new leadership, the Conservatives have been clear that the cost to families of net zero by 2050 will be far too high. Sir Keir Starmer must rein in his ideological Energy Secretary and urgently change course.' The Government argued that the subsidies were accelerating the move to clean energies and reducing UK vulnerability to future surges in gas and oil prices. A spokesman said: 'As shown by the National Energy System Operator's independent report, clean power by 2030 is achievable and will deliver a more secure energy system, which could see a lower cost of electricity and lower bills.' Ana Musat, of Renewable UK, the wind industry trade body, said: 'Looking at the cost of financial support for renewables in isolation is misleading, as it does not reflect the contributions of the sector to the economy. 'Offshore wind alone is attracting billions of pounds of new investment to this country, supporting 32,000 jobs, and this is set to rise to 100,000 by 2030. 'We're also expecting subsidy costs to begin falling in the near future, with a £1.8bn reduction for billpayers starting in 2027.' Many of the subsidy schemes now overseen by Mr Miliband were set up by the previous Conservative or coalition governments. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
02-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Net zero subsidies cost British households £280 a year
Britain's green energy subsidies have added an estimated £280 to households' energy bills, research has found. Levies used to encourage construction of wind farms, solar parks and other renewables have added £25.8bn a year to energy bills paid by both households and industry, according to a study from the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF). The charity said the cost of the subsidies were a key factor in the UK's sky-high electricity prices and blamed them for accelerating the decline of British industry. John Constable, REF's director, said: 'Renewables subsidies are now costing £25.8 bn per year – or over £900 per household annually – about one third of which, £280, will hit the average domestic electricity bill directly. 'The remainder, £650, impacts households through general cost of living increases – as businesses like supermarkets recover their share of the green subsidy costs through increased prices. 'This is intolerable. It simply can't go on.' REF's estimate of the direct cost of green energy subsidies on household bills is strikingly similar to the £300 that Labour promised bills would decrease by if the party came to power and moved Britain's energy system to renewables. That claim has become a source of controversy since their election win last year, with Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, repeatedly challenged to show bills are going down. Average bills rose by 6.4pc, or £111 a year, when the latest energy price cap took effect last month. A Government spokesman disagreed with the REF figures used in the report and said it 'ignores the benefits of clean power and significantly misleads on the cost of renewables'. REF analysed the cost of 10 separate subsidy schemes imposed on homes and businesses by successive governments since 2002. The report, which was based on government data, is thought to be the first to draw together the cost of the UK's many green subsidies and the levies that support them. The most expensive subsidy was the Renewable Obligation scheme set up in 2002, which offers wind solar and other renewable producers guaranteed subsidies for two decades after they start generating. It cost an estimated £6.8bn in 2023. Its surging costs saw it blocked for new entrants in 2017, but companies accepted before then can still get payments up to 2037. It currently adds £89.26 to the average domestic fuel bill, according to separate data from analysts Cornwall Insight. REF said the total £25.6bn cost of such subsidies now accounts for more than a third of the £71bn spent on electricity in the UK in 2023, the most recent year it looked at. It means such subsidies are key factors in setting the UK's power prices, which are among the world's highest. It said: 'There can be little doubt that renewable electricity subsidies are a significant factor in the cost of living crisis and are very likely to be an important element underlying the weak growth in productivity in the UK economy since the financial crisis of 2008.' The latest Government analysis of electricity demand in 2024 said industrial power consumption had fallen by 22pc since 2010, while commercial and domestic consumption both fell by 22pc. Andrew Bowie, the Conservative shadow energy secretary, said: 'Ed Miliband can try to perpetuate the fiction that his net zero targets will save people money, but this research reveals the true cost of prioritising climate targets over cheap energy. 'Under new leadership, the Conservatives have been clear that the cost to families of net zero by 2050 will be far too high. Sir Keir Starmer must rein in his ideological Energy Secretary and urgently change course.' The Government argued that the subsidies were accelerating the move to clean energies and reducing UK vulnerability to future surges in gas and oil prices. A spokesman said: 'As shown by the National Energy System Operator's independent report, clean power by 2030 is achievable and will deliver a more secure energy system, which could see a lower cost of electricity and lower bills.' 'Offshore wind alone is attracting billions of pounds of new investment to this country, supporting 32,000 jobs, and this is set to rise to 100,000 by 2030. 'We're also expecting subsidy costs to begin falling in the near future, with a £1.8bn reduction for billpayers starting in 2027.' Many of the subsidy schemes now overseen by Mr Miliband were set up by the previous Conservative or coalition governments.
The National
24-04-2025
- Business
- The National
Ofgem investigates Scottish wind farm over 'excessive' energy charges
The Moray East wind farm, which is located in the Moray Firth off Wick but run by a London-registered company, is being probed by Ofgem amid concerns it may have charged consumers 'excessive' prices not to generate power. Wind farms are routinely given 'constraint payments' to reduce or stop generating energy when the grid cannot handle the power they produce. These payments are added directly onto people's bills. Last October, The National reported on data from the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) which showed more than £100m in such payments had been handed to Scottish wind farms in the 100 days since Labour took power at Westminster. READ MORE: Scottish Government approves major battery farm development In January, the trade outlet Energy Voice reported on new REF data showing that across 2024, constraint payments for Scottish wind farms totalled more than £390m. In February, the REF published analysis suggesting that consumers had been 'overcharged by more than £300m' by wind farms who were allegedly 'charging to reduce generation during periods of grid constraint'. REF added: 'We could see no justification for wind farms that are not losing income when constrained to charge for any reduction in output. Their commercial position is not harmed, and therefore the constraint payment represents additional and unearned income.' The think tank published a table showing that the Moray East wind farm had, between September 21, 2021 and February 29, 2024, charged consumers £136.8m to stop producing power. Now, energy regulator Ofgem has opened an investigation into the site – but cautioned that it does not 'imply that we have made any findings about non-compliance'. File photo of turbines in the Moray FirthThe watchdog said in a statement that it was investigating whether condition 20A of the Transmission Constraint Licence Condition (TCLC) had been breached. This states that firms must not receive 'excessive benefit' from constraint payments charged to consumers. Ofgem said: 'In order to manage transmission constraints, National Energy System Operator ('NESO') routinely uses the balancing mechanism ('BM') to increase and decrease the amount of electricity produced by different generators. 'Typically, when managing a transmission constraint, NESO will only have a limited number of alternatives available to it. This creates a risk that generators could exploit their position by charging NESO excessive prices to reduce their output. The TCLC prohibits them from doing so. 'Since it began operating in the BM in September 2021, Moray East Offshore Windfarm has been regularly instructed by NESO to reduce its generation to manage transmission constraints. 'Its bid prices since then appear expensive relative to the expected marginal cost of reducing generation for this generator. Our investigation will assess whether these bid prices were excessive during periods of constraint.' In a statement published after the probe was announced, the REF said Ofgem had 'at last' acted on their concerns. It went on: 'While Ofgem is to be commended for starting an investigation into Moray East offshore wind farm, it is disturbing that it has apparently taken nearly two years for an investigation into this single wind farm to commence. 'Our data suggests that almost all of the 123 wind farms which have received constraint payments have been overcharging the consumer and that Ofgem needs to develop a more serious strategy for reclaiming these payments and returning them to the consumer very much more promptly.' In 2023, energy giant SSE was ordered to pay a £9.8m penalty after Ofgem found it had overcharged during times of transmission constraint. The news comes as the UK Government hailed the switching-on of the nearby Moray West wind farm. Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Ltd has been contacted for comment.
