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Heat pumps and insulation would cut UK living costs more than new oilfields, study suggests by Changaco in c/europe@feddit.org

[-] Changaco@jlai.lu 1 points 3 days ago

It's a subsidy when the state ends up paying the difference between the guaranteed price and the average market price.

Heat pumps and insulation would cut UK living costs more than new oilfields, study suggests by Changaco in c/europe@feddit.org

[-] Changaco@jlai.lu 1 points 4 days ago

I guess another way would be fixed prices for all nuclear and renewables since they have fixed costs anyway. The thing is, the system already works that way to an extent, as there are a lot of guaranteed prices in renewables and some in nuclear. As far as I can tell, these subsidies are why the market price sometimes goes negative when solar or wind produce a lot: the subsidized sellers don't care, they still receive their guaranteed income based on the quantity of energy they inject into the grid. It seems to me that without these subsidies the market prices would always be high, thus better reflecting the true cost of electricity.

2

[Historical, 2003] “Should Britain join the euro?” (news.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 4 days ago by Changaco@jlai.lu to c/europe@feddit.org

0 comments fedilink

Take a look at this old gem. A web page from a different era, still fine after 23 years, although if you open it on a smartphone you have to zoom in or use the browser's reading mode or rotate the screen because the page predates the iPhone.

I'm sharing this now due to recent discussions of the possibility of the UK rejoining the EU, which have been triggered by Prime Minister Andy Burnham breaking the Brexit taboo a few weeks ago. Euro adoption usually pops up in those debates and tends to be presented as unthinkable. It's true that there never was broad public support to adopt the euro in the UK, but Labour governments used to support monetary union in principle and had come up with the five economic tests to assess the country's structural readiness to join.

To be clear, I'm not claiming that the UK would have to agree to adopt the Euro in order to join the EU again. It would certainly be easier if a strong majority of the UK population was committed to all aspects of the ever closer union, but the reality is that some EU member states also lack those strong majorities. Indeed six members still haven't adopted the euro: Czechia, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden.

Which of the opinions from 2003 do you find most interesting (or funny or …)? What would your response be if the BBC asked again for people's opinions on Euro adoption in the UK (or in your own country)?

Heat pumps and insulation would cut UK living costs more than new oilfields, study suggests by Changaco in c/europe@feddit.org

[-] Changaco@jlai.lu 8 points 4 days ago

Setting the electricity market price based on the most expensive source at any given time is pretty much universal in Europe. It's an EU thing, not a specificity of the UK.

Changing this rule would reduce the income and profits of climate friendly electricity providers, thus penalizing the investors who tried to do the right thing.