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The gold-rush mood is over

The gold-rush mood is over: solar and wind farms are becoming a loss business

In Germany, the gold-rush atmosphere for solar and wind farms has been over since 2025. Falling electricity prices are depressing revenues, while interest rates and construction costs are rising. At the same time, long grid connection waiting times slow down projects, which is why budgets and schedules are shifting. In addition, a draft bill to amend the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) is causing unrest because new plants are no longer to receive compensation in the event of curtailments due to grid overload and could thus become a loss (handelsblatt: 20.02.26).

Gold rush mood ends in cost shock – solar parks hardly pay off anymore

The industry came from years of high profits, but the calculation is now tipping quickly. A few years ago, the LCOE (Levelized Costs of Electricity) – i.e. the total electricity generation costs of a plant over its lifetime – were 3.5 to four cents per kilowatt hour. Developers are currently reporting five cents and more, while the revenue side is not keeping pace. The EEG remuneration for large photovoltaic parks was 5.23 cents in 2025, and direct electricity supply contracts are also significantly lower in some cases, according to Eneritis. This means that new investments quickly become negative business.

It's a dilemma for Ed Miliband, as even he must take note of what is happening elsewhere in the world. For example we have this from the same source -


China to connect 52 new coal-fired power plants to the grid – largest expansion in a decade in 2025

China pushed ahead with the expansion of coal-fired power in 2025 and commissioned 52 large units (≥1 GW each). This is shown by the CREA/Global Energy Monitor report. It is the highest figure in ten years, in which fewer than 20 such large units were connected to the grid. The trigger was the power shortages in 2021 and 2022, when factories had to cut production and a city introduced rolling shutdowns. Beijing therefore took advantage of security of supply through the massive expansion of coal-fired power plants. The consequences range from more stable industrial electricity to higher climate risks, because new coal-fired units later achieve long service lives.

Starmer Vows Again

Starmer vows not to quit after Labour humiliated by Green victory

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to “keep fighting” following a major blow to his premiership after Labour were defeated by the Greens in the Gorton and Denton by-election.

The prime minister said the loss was “very disappointing” but insisted he understood voters are “frustrated” and “impatient for change”.

It comes after Angela Rayner said Labour’s defeat must be a “wake up call” for the party as she called for a “braver” approach to politics.


Hmm - it must be time for another dose of Hippolyte Taine.


Most of them are mere politicians, charlatans, and intriguers, third-class lawyers and doctors, literary failures, semi-educated stump-speakers, bar-room, club, or clique orators, and vulgar climbers.

Left behind in private careers, in which one is closely watched and accepted for what he is worth, they launch out on a public career because, in this business, popular suffrage at once ignorant, indifferent, is a badly informed, prejudiced and passionate judge and prefers a moralist of easy conscience, instead of demanding unsullied integrity and proven competency.

Nothing more is demanded from candidates but witty speech-making, assertiveness and showing off in public, gross flattery, a display of enthusiasm and promises to place the power about to be conferred on them by the people in the hands of those who will serve its antipathies and prejudices.

Hippolyte Taine - The Modern Regime (1893)

Rodney sets a tough target

PM urges voters to reject 'toxic' politics as by-election polls open

Sir Keir Starmer has made a final desperate plea to voters in Gorton and Denton, urging them to turn against “toxic” politics and make a choice between “unity or division” in a crucial by-election which experts believe could herald a new era of British politics.

With the vote expected to be a major test of his leadership, the prime minister made a last-ditch attempt to persuade voters to back his party. Ahead of the vote, Labour appeared to be neck and neck with the Greens and Reform in a fight to win the Greater Manchester seat, with any of the three parties in with a chance of winning.

Blimey, no doubt it is just possible to be more divisive than Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, but Gorton and Denton polling suggests he has set a tough target.

Reeves Tries Irony

Andrew must repay any misused taxpayer money, says Reeves

Chancellor says she has never met the former Duke of York and it is 'probably for the best'

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor should repay money to the public purse if he is found to have misused taxpayers’ funds, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has told The i Paper.

Reeves also said she was glad she had never met Mountbatten-Windsor, who was described by one government minister on Tuesday as “rude, arrogant and entitled”.

Blimey...

Net Zero...

Nope, the list is a long one and we are off out for coffee.

What voters are thinking

‘We’ve already given up on Labour’: What voters are thinking in key by-election

Sipping a cup of tea at Colin’s Cafe in Longsight Market, John Hanrahan believes only a fraction of those perusing the stalls will have heard that Labour’s former US ambassador Peter Mandelson was arrested yesterday...

“I don’t give a toss, they should be sorting out the problems that were all now in.

“You [journalists] write about crap, you don’t write about anything that you should be writing about.


Journalists write about crap? Surely not.


Coronation Street star criticises soap’s ‘crime-heavy’ storylines

Coronation Street star Sally Ann Matthews, who left the show last year, has hit out at the ITV soap for focusing on crime plots.

Gorton & Denton Need The Green Party