Is Renewable Energy Affordable?

The cost of energy provision is the basis of our living standards. The demand for renewable power sources to mitigate global warming concerns comes with increasing cost, and their integration onto the national electricity supply network remains largely unnoticed until the bills arrive. State policy has not managed this transition effectively, and the increasing cost of highly damaging subsidies, inflicted as a consequence of imposed regulation, has been absorbed by the electricity consumer. This situation has led to the state assuming effective direction of electrical power supply investment. This book explains to the lay reader how this circumstance has arisen. Understanding the varied technologies of supply and their accommodation onto an electrical grid system is only the first stage. Structural issues are examined, as are security problems that are endemic with intermittent production from renewable sources. It is within this detail where the costs are found and why electricity bills have doubled over the past decade. What is revealed is the serious predicament the nation faces for future electrical supplies, where solutions cannot be realised overnight. The book outlines radical proposals for future investment that has confounded our politicians, accountants and bureaucrats. It is time for an engineering perspective to be heard.