SOARING energy bills include £80 to switch wind turbines OFF when they generate too much power.
With price rises already heaping pressure on families, the pain is being made worse by the cost of paying wind farms to shut down.
Energy bills include £80 to switch wind turbines OFF when they generate too much power
The ludicrous situation is because, on windy days, the turbines produce more energy than the Grid can cope with.
While the biggest electricity demand comes from busier cities in the south of England, the majority of turbines are built in Scotland and the North Sea — and there are not enough National Grid connections to transport or store their excess electricity.
Managing the unpredictability of wind power, which includes paying gas plants to warm up on days when there is not enough wind, worked out at around 3 per cent per cent of household annual bills.
Last year, the Grid spent a total £2billion on so-called “constraint management”.
The UK wasted enough wind energy to power 1.2 million homes in just four months, research by Stonehaven consultancy says.
This is despite fears that a shortage of energy would lead to rolling blackouts.
Critics say there are investors willing to provide the billions of pounds required to invest in Britain’s green energy infrastructure but they are thwarted by planning rules and regulations.
Greg Jackson, boss of Octopus Energy, told HOAR: “You can build a wind farm in a year but it takes 12 years to get grid connections and permits.
“The queue for a grid connection is a disgrace — there’s more than three times the current demand. It’s like Alton Towers having capacity for 50,000 people but there being 150,000 in the queue.”
A National Grid spokesman said: “We are always analysing constraint costs versus the building of new assets and are working with the whole energy industry to reduce the impact of network constraints whilst building a greener and cleaner system.”
VUE SPURRED BY SUPER MARIO
VUE CINEMAS raked in more than £20million in box office sales in the first week of the new Mario Bros film’s release as demand for Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach smashed expectations.
Despite snooty reviews, the film, based on the Nintendo Super Mario video games, has broken box office records.
Vue cinemas raked in more than £20million in box office sales in the first week of the new Mario Bros film’s release
The family film took in £285million globally in the first five days of its release.
Robert Lea, head of screen content at Vue, said it took more than last year’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru.
“The cinema is a comparatively affordable option for families who want a great out-of-home experience,” Mr Lea said.
STRIKING GOLD AT BOWLING
HOLLYWOOD BOWL has posted record sales as families enjoy knockdown deals on value-for-money entertainment.
The chain, which has 69 centres and mini-golf sites across the country, said sales rose to £111million over the last six months.
Hollywood Bowl has posted record sales as families enjoy knockdown deals on value-for-money entertainment.
That was 10 per cent up on the previous year.
Profits were boosted by alley openings in Peterborough, Cambs, and at Speke, Liverpool.
Hollywood Bowl said the new sites were performing ahead of expectations.
Chief executive Stephen Burns said there was “huge customer appeal of our great value-for-money offer at a time when many consumers are being more selective with their time and money”.
Despite the cost-of-living crisis forcing families to watch their entertainment budgets, Hollywood Bowl said it enjoyed bumper trading over the Easter break.
A RUDDY BIG DEAL
A LONDON PR firm run by former Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s brother has struck a private equity deal which values it at around £1.12billion.
FGS Global — formerly Finsbury — lists Asda, Boots and Easyjet as clients.
Among its City firm clients is KKR, which is buying around 30 per cent of FGS.
Roland Rudd, who founded the firm in 1994, will pocket a multi-million-pound payday, while 400 other senior staff will collect a big windfall.
EASTER’S SHOPPER SPLURGE
RETAILERS had a sugar rush over the Easter weekend, with shopper footfall surging by a similar amount to the usual Christmas spending spree.
Footfall rose by 14.2 per cent against the previous week, while the number of shoppers visiting high streets on Good Friday leapt by 26.8 per cent.
Data from Springboard found that it was the biggest weekly increase in shopper numbers since the week before Christmas last year.
Coastal towns and historic towns performed best, with shop footfall at stores near the seaside rising almost two thirds from the week before.
The long Easter weekend’s footfall was 3.7 per cent higher than in 2022 but still 10.8 per cent lower than before the pandemic, Springboard found.
£156M BET AGAINST NATWEST
A HEDGE fund has taken a £156million bet that Natwest shares will fall further following last month’s turmoil in the banking sector.
Marshall Wace has disclosed a 0.61 per cent position, the biggest ever “short” the bank has faced since records began in 2012.
A hedge fund has taken a £156million bet that Natwest shares will fall further
Short-sellers make money from selling borrowed shares, gambling they will be able to buy them at a cheaper price.
London-based Marshall Wace made millions of pounds by betting that shares in online fashion retailer Boohoo, which lost 38 per cent of its value in the past year, would fall.
The hedge fund has dipped in and out of NatWest.
But it upped its position in the bank from 0.5 per cent in the days after Credit Suisse’s rescue takeover by UBS.
Bank insiders maintain they are confident NatWest is resilient and said its shares have largely recovered since a sector-wide sell-off last month.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://hellofaread.com/money/job-youve-probably-never-heard-of-pays-25k-a-year-you-get-to-travel-the-world-but-theres-a-catch/
