Scotland Can’t Afford Independence: Windmills Will Bankrupt It

SCOTLAND can’t afford independence. This is a fun little set of numbers:

David Cameron has endorsed an expert report that warned Alex Salmond’s plan for a renewable energy revolution would increase the average household power bill by £875 in an independent Scotland.

Here’s how the number works out.

All those lovely windmills, the solar panels, the attempts at clean coal, all these different methods of trying to make sure that Gaia doesn’t boil us all, are paid for through the electricity bills. There’s no actual tax money (or very little rather) that goes to fund them, the cost of all these things is added to the ‘leccie bills through the feed in tariff (FIT). For example, solar panels installed before now get 45p or so per unit of ‘leccie produced (coal perhaps 10p) and we pay for this by all of us (no, not just those who sign up for “green power”) paying more on our ‘leccie bill.

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Tim Worstall

Posted: 9th, November 2011 | In: Money | Comments (6)