True British patriots have gas boilers and petrol cars

As sales of electric vehicles (EVS) and heat pumps continue to fall far short of government targets, the net-zero lobby is resorting to ever more desperate tactics to persuade us all to abandon our cars and boilers. The latest, from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank, is to argue that homeowners and drivers can demonstrate “energy patriotism” by using electricity to heat their homes and power their cars.

The claim is based on the theory that electricity is more likely than other fuels to be generated in the UK, through the use of wind farms and solar panels. Thus it is our patriotic duty to buy EVS and heat pumps, despite the fact that they can cost nearly twice as much as their petrol and gas counterparts.

As hostilities in the Middle East threaten oil supplies, and with the ever-present risk of sabotage to undersea cables, the idea of energy self-sufficiency is certainly attractive – and possibly crucial to our future security. If renewables really could provide us with such security, the net-zero enthusiasts might have a winning argument. But wrapping a Union flag around wind and solar power cannot disguise its inherent failings.

First, and most obviously, is the problem of intermittent supply. No matter how many new wind turbines are built, no energy will be generated when the wind doesn’t blow, a problem frequently experienced during the relatively calm year of 2023. Yet the opposite problem also applies: on the windiest days, UK turbines can generate more power than the transmission network can cope with, so they have to be turned off – and wind farms are then entitled to compensation equalling the price of the electricity they could have supplied.

In either situation, gas power stations have to supply the shortfall, creating additional expense. As the UK runs down its extraction of oil and gas, more of the gas fuelling our power stations is being imported. There’s nothing “patriotic” about this exercise.

Meanwhile, the suggestion that electricity from solar panels can ever have more than a marginal impact on this country’s power needs does not stack up, given intermittency of supply relative to the expense of installation and maintenance.

Even supposing the UK eventually undertakes the massive expansion of the grid necessary to manage the shift away from oil and gas, the prospect of being able to rely on renewable energy will therefore remain elusive. In the meantime, should consumers embrace heat pumps and electric cars at the rate envisaged by the UK’S various carbon targets, the demands on the grid would surely inevitably result in blackouts.

Moreover, mass purchase of electric vehicles is bound to increase our reliance on imports from China, since their EVS are the closest to becoming affordable. As with so much of the UK’S manufacturing industry – including the production of solar panels and wind turbines – carbon taxes and restrictions on the use of fossil fuels appear to have contributed to the outsourcing of production overseas, leaving the UK far less self-sufficient.

The most patriotic way forward for the UK would be to increase investment in North Sea oil and gas production and give the go-ahead to fracking, following the example of the US, where energy security is now a reality. America has been a net energy exporter for the past five years, as we have moved in the opposite direction.

The claim that abandoning fossil fuels will make this country safer in a hostile world is a perversion of reality; it should be treated with contempt.