SAY NO TO A NUCLEAR AUSTRALIA

Shell Withdraws from the London Array Wind Farm.

1:36 PM, Sat 3 May 2008 .. Posted in Conspiracy Theories .. 1 comments .. Link

While researching an article on wind power today, I was appalled to read of the decision by Shell to sell off their one third interest in the London Array wind farm project. So I had to add this one in here too. A bit of background...

On the 18th of December 2006, British government approved the plans to build the world's largest offshore wind farm off the south-east coast of England. This wind farm, London Array, a partnership project between Shell, E.On and Dong Energy, was to incorporate 341 turbines, would cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of £1.5 - 2 billion, and would generate 1000 mW of power, or enough to feed 1% of the UK's energy needs... that's enough to power a quarter of London.

But today's news reports that Shell has decided to sell it's share of the project, leaving E.On and Dong to ponder the future of the project. Shell has defended its' action, saying that ity has decided to sell its stake as part of its "ongoing review of projects and investment choices," and noting that the company has 11 other wind projects across Europe and the U.S.

The Chronicle Herald, on the 2nd of May 2006 reported...

"Friends of the Earth spokesman Nic Rau said Shell’s decision was especially hard to take since it came just two days after Shell posted a 25 per cent rise in first-quarter profit to a record $9.1 billion on the back of soaring crude oil prices.
"We’re very disappointed that Shell, which touts itself as a progressive green company, is . . . leaving a key clean energy project high and dry," said Rau."

An extract from an article in The Star dated the 3rd of May 2006 states...

"It came just before the consortium signed a contract with a turbine manufacturer - the point at which the companies had to put their money on the table. Shell's move is an economic one, with funds redirected towards potentially more profitable wind schemes in the US.

But the company came under fire from green groups who accused them of leaving the clean energy project "high and dry" while investing in fossil fuel extraction which was wrecking the climate. And on Thursday night the row widened, with opposition parties claiming the UK was in danger of missing green energy targets because of the Government's failure to encourage investment in renewables.

Shadow business secretary Alan Duncan said: "This really is a disaster and it potentially blows a huge hole in Government's already shambolic attempts to hit targets for renewable energy."

I'm sorry, but the numbers just aren't stacking up. Shell recorded a profit of $27.5 billion (£13.9 billion) in 2007. That makes their share of the £2 billion that the London Array would have cost seem like a piddling little trifle, doesn't it? So why have they justified pulling out of this project over a concern about money when they made such a whopping amount last year?

Probably because it's more profitable to sell their oil to the poor ignorant slobs at home. Shell is now making a $75 million (£38 million) per day profit... that's PER DAY... on the price of oil. That means that they could pay for their share of the project after a single day's trading. Uh???

But once the wind farm has been accounted for, how much could they reasonably ask the British public to pay for a resource that's obtained almost free of charge? Not as much as for oil, obviously.

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<i>Untitled Comment</i>

11:26 AM, Sun 4 May 2008 .. Posted by mrpickwick
Good blog tinacee. You might find some ideas here - http://www.blognow.com.au/mrpickwick/Nuclear_power/ or in the climate change category. The nuclear power push is the work of unscrupulous people determined to make money out of climate change while continuing business as usual.

Edited by mrpickwick on Sun 4 May 2008 at 12:16 PM

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