Thousands of British homes will be paid to use electricity during the day for the first time, as wind and solar projects produce a surge in clean energy during the coronavirus lockdown.

On Sunday morning, windfarms contributed almost 40% of the UK’s electricity, while solar power made up almost a fifth of the power system. Fossil fuels made up less than 15% of electricity, of which only 1.1% came from coal plants.

Meanwhile, the country’s energy demand has fallen by around 10% due to the shutdown of pubs, restaurants, companies and factories across the country, leading to the lowest electricity market prices in 10 years.

Households on a new breed of home energy tariff will even be paid to use electricity during the day on Sunday, because sunny weather and a brisk breeze will help generate ample clean electricity to meet the UK’s lower energy needs.

The so-called “negative electricity prices” have previously only been available to homes overnight, when demand is typically at its lowest. But the impact of the coronavirus lockdown and the bright spring weather mean some homes will be able to earn money while using clean electricity during the day for the first time.

Households which use the Agile Octopus energy tariff, offered by Octopus Energy, were contacted on Saturday to let them know they would be paid for every kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity they use during the sunniest hours of Sunday afternoon.

From 11am-4pm, those customers will earn 0.22p-3.3p per kWh to make use of the UK’s abundant clean energy, the company said.

Governments around the world will subsidise the cost of gas, coal and oil with a “shocking” $10million (£6million) a minute this year, a new study by economic experts has revealed.

The estimated figure, which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has described as “extremely robust”, suggests that firms benefit from $5.3 trillion (£3.4 trillion) a year. That is more than the annual total worldwide governments spend on health care, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics.

Researchers defined energy subsidies as the difference between what consumers pay for energy and its “true costs”, as firms do not pay the costs levied against governments by burning fossil fuels.

This sum factors in supply costs and the damage that energy consumption inflicts on people’s health and the environment, two senior IMF officials wrote in a blog post, entitled “Act Local, Save Global”, launching the study on Monday.

The report featured in this article provides fascinating food for thought – it identifies:

Highly subsidised wind and solar capacity flooding the market with near random amounts of zero marginal cost electricity wrecks the economics of conventional power stations. It is therefore impossible to integrate large amounts of intermittent renewables into a private sector system and still expect it to function as such.

There are two options to align ownership and control:

1.       If renewables are a must-have – although no government has made a reasoned policy case for them – then nationalisation is the answer; or

2.       the state cedes control, ditches the renewables target and returns the sector to the market.

Cutting global beef consumption and eating chicken instead would do more to tackle climate change than building two million onshore wind turbines and 2,000 nuclear reactors, according to Government analysis.

Cows and sheep are so bad for the environment that switching just half the beef and lamb in an average diet to pork and poultry could enable the world to hit its global warming targets without using any nuclear plants or wind farms at all.

The figures are drawn from a new “global calculator” online tool, launched on Wednesday by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

The software, part-funded by £550,000 of taxpayer cash, is intended to show the possible scenarios in which the world can hit its goals of limiting warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels. Beyond 2C, scientists say the effects of warming will be far more severe.

The goal requires annual global greenhouse gas emissions to be slashed from about 50 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent now, to about 20 gigatonnes a year in 2050. On current behaviour, the world is on course for about 84 gigatonnes by 2050, leading to global warming of 6C this century.

Huhne will insist the government is backing renewable energy and has resolved to make the UK the largest market in Europe for offshore wind.

His speech to the annual renewable industry conference comes in the wake of the publication of government proposals to reduce subsidies for green technologies including onshore wind, although the plans contained better news on support for offshore wind, wave and tidal power.

An eco friendly school has been left £55,000 out of pocket after its wind turbine broke. The company that installed the turbine has gone bust leaving the school with a pile of scrap. The Gorran School in Cornwall revealed its 15 metre turbine in 2008 which was designed to provide it with free electricity – and sell any surplus power to the National Grid.

The system was seen as a green blueprint for clean, sustainable energy for schools nationwide and received grants from various bodies including the EDF power firm. But soon after being installed the wind turbine became faulty and after a few months seized up – showering the school’s playing field with debris.

Since then the school has been locked in a battle with suppliers Proven Energy which has now gone into administration leaving the school with little hope of any money being returned – and a pile of scrap in their field.”

This salutary tale highlights the risks in the rush to go green – the perils of not thinking through or being advised on technical details of some of the “green” energy options open to us and the fact that the route to renewable energy is not necessarily paved with gold.

Citing how over the next 10 years up to 25% of existing power stations will close and £110 billion of investment is needed to replace them and upgrade the national grid, the Minister has unveiled a five-point plan: (1) a new carbon price floor; (2) a system to make low carbon energy more attractive; (3) the introduction of an Emissions Performance Standard; (4) a contracting framework for changing the way we secure our back-up electricity; and (5) institutional arrangements to deliver this package of reforms and ensure continuity in investment.

In practice, it is estimated that the programme will add £160 per year to the average energy bill by 2030, compared to £200 without the changes. Amid the ‘renewables roadmap’, apart from increased bills, the proposals contain little mention of consumers.

On the one hand, sustained rises in heating costs have led to many people in rural communities struggling to keep warm in winter and having to make the decision whether to heat or eat. On the other hand, perhaps these plans present opportunities for more rural communities to generate their own energy from renewable sources.

The article explains:  “The controversial new drilling operation for natural shale gas in Lancashire has been suspended following a second earthquake in the area that may have been triggered by the process.

“The earthquake last Friday near Blackpool occurred at the same time that the energy company Cuadrilla Resources was injecting fluids under high pressure deep underground to deliberately blast apart the gas-bearing rock – a process known as “fracking”, brought to Britain from the US, where it has been highly contentious.”

All goes to show that there is no environmental neutral short cut to energy provision.

It reveals: “Wind turbine giant Vestas is planning to build a new factory in the UK, creating 2,000 jobs, the company said today. The Danish-owned firm is applying for planning permission for a new plant at Sheerness in Kent to build turbines for the offshore wind industry.

“The announcement is a huge boost for the UK’s renewable energy sector and follows Vestas’ controversial decision to close a factory on the Isle of Wight with the loss of hundreds of jobs.”

I did some work with people at the South East of England Development Agency last year and I was really impressed by the way the agency was keen to drive the agenda around renewables. Although only a year ago it seems like an eternity in terms of the massive structural changes to economic development since then.

I am not surprised at all that some of the people I met have had a key role in helping pull this investment off. There are a lot of people who assume the South East is universally affluent – I know that there are large areas of Kent which are anything but economically vibrant and this investment will be a positive and exciting development for those tasked with regeneration in that county.