http://www.windaction.org/ facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts en-us Windaction hourly 1 http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.windaction.org/articles/1167 Thu, 01 Dec 2005 05:00:00 GMT http://www.windaction.org/articles/1167 http://www.windaction.org/articles/38280 Sun, 05 May 2013 12:55:35 GMT Power companies operating wind farms in Scotland were paid more than £1 million to shut down their turbines for a single day last month, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. ...The so-called "constraint payments" are paid by the National Grid to energy companies when energy supply outstrips demand - turbines are switched off so they stop producing electricity to rebalance the system. http://www.windaction.org/articles/38280 http://www.windaction.org/articles/37911 Sat, 30 Mar 2013 17:40:09 GMT Bureaucrats in charge of the Government's controversial green policies have benefited from a multi-million-pound bonus bonanza since the last election. The total amount of performance-related handouts given to civil servants at the Department for Energy and Climate Change has almost tripled since Labour's final year in office to £9million. http://www.windaction.org/articles/37911 http://www.windaction.org/articles/37900 Fri, 29 Mar 2013 03:19:09 GMT The true pace at which wind farms are spreading across Scotland's countryside has been disclosed after official figures indicated the number of turbines increased by a third in the last year alone. ...Struan Stevenson, a Scottish Tory MEP, said the DECC figures were "perfectly symbolic of how pathetically useless and inefficient the whole technology of wind is." http://www.windaction.org/articles/37900 http://www.windaction.org/articles/37687 Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:26:50 GMT Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS), Areva SA (AREVA) and four other power-generation manufacturers wrote to ministers saying the U.K. risks falling behind European peers and choking job creation by stalling a decision on setting a carbon target. http://www.windaction.org/articles/37687 http://www.windaction.org/articles/37567 Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:49:14 GMT Europe's plans for offshore wind power up to 2020 could be as much as 50 billion euros ($65.55 billion) short of funding, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said in a study released on Thursday. http://www.windaction.org/articles/37567 http://www.windaction.org/articles/37443 Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:51:00 GMT Fuel bills will soar as green targets leave Britain reliant on expensive imported gas, the energy regulator warned yesterday. Alistair Buchanan, chief executive of Ofgem, also raised the spectre of 1970s-style blackouts because 10 per cent of coal and oil-fired power production is being shut down next month. http://www.windaction.org/articles/37443 http://www.windaction.org/articles/37441 Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:00:48 GMT Households must prepare for a sharp rise in energy bills within two years as Britain comes "dangerously" close to power shortages, the chief executive of Ofgem has warned. http://www.windaction.org/articles/37441 http://www.windaction.org/articles/37347 Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:33:40 GMT "This is because, in practice, funding a significant expansion of Scottish-based off-shore renewables under independence would lead to considerable increases in Scottish electricity prices, something that a Scottish government would find hard to sustain politically." http://www.windaction.org/articles/37347 http://www.windaction.org/articles/37258 Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:34:08 GMT In the report, released on Monday, the authors say wind energy "will never be suited as the lone or primary source of grid electricity due to its variable nature and will not deliver the environmental benefits expected". http://www.windaction.org/articles/37258 http://www.windaction.org/articles/37145 Fri, 25 Jan 2013 18:24:01 GMT Ireland's Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte, and the UK's energy secretary Edward Davey signed a memorandum of understanding to move forward plans to allow Irish wind farms to export electricity to Britain. http://www.windaction.org/articles/37145 http://www.windaction.org/articles/37080 Mon, 14 Jan 2013 04:53:02 GMT Furious MPs say the agreements mean these licensees will pull in an estimated £17billion - all of which will "ultimately be funded by customers". The committee's chairman, Labour MP Margaret Hodge, said: "The terms of these transmission licences appear to have been designed almost entirely to attract investors at the expense of securing a good deal for consumers." http://www.windaction.org/articles/37080 http://www.windaction.org/articles/36733 Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:56:27 GMT Ed Davey told a conference in Edinburgh the cost of Scottish renewable energy subsidies and infrastructure is currently spread across 26 million homes across the UK. But he warned that after separation this would be borne entirely by households north of the Border and "basic arithmetic" dictated that the average bill would have to increase markedly. http://www.windaction.org/articles/36733 http://www.windaction.org/articles/36637 Sat, 01 Dec 2012 01:44:22 GMT The Government's green energy policy has been blamed for pushing up energy bills and covering the country with ugly wind turbines. But government statistics released quietly on Thursday, when the world's eyes were on the Leveson report, suggest that it is doing something far worse too: killing the elderly. http://www.windaction.org/articles/36637 http://www.windaction.org/articles/36610 Sat, 24 Nov 2012 22:33:12 GMT The Mountaineering Council of Scotland expressed its disappointment. David Gibson said: "This report is a missed opportunity for Scotland to protect our fabulous open landscapes and paves the way for huge power companies to smother yet more of our mountainsides with turbines. http://www.windaction.org/articles/36610 http://www.windaction.org/articles/36596 Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:02:19 GMT The peace deal, allowing £7.6 billion to be put on bills over the next eight years, follows a bitter split between Chancellor George Osborne and Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary, that threatened to tear the Coalition apart over the its green agenda. At the heart of the fight, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have been increasingly worried about the rising cost of energy to consumers. http://www.windaction.org/articles/36596 http://www.windaction.org/articles/36589 Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:14:09 GMT The government has published details of its long-awaited Energy Bill, designed to keep lights on and emissions down. It will allow energy companies to charge households an extra £7.6bn until 2020, to go towards low-carbon electricity infrastructure. A decision about setting carbon emission targets for 2030 has been delayed until 2016, after the election. Labour said this was a "humiliating failure" for the Lib Dems. http://www.windaction.org/articles/36589 http://www.windaction.org/articles/36588 Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:09:55 GMT Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat energy secretary, defended his green energy deal on Friday, after coming under fire for dropping a carbon emissions target and adding to consumers' rising energy bills. After months of infighting, Mr Davey finally compromised with his Conservative coalition partners, agreeing a deal that will pave the way for an energy bill next week. http://www.windaction.org/articles/36588 http://www.windaction.org/articles/36587 Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:04:26 GMT Households and businesses will have to pay £7.6billion a year towards the cost of building "greener" power stations by 2020. This is three times the current level of £2.35 billion per year, as bill-payers are forced to remunerate companies for several new nuclear plants, thousands of wind turbines and potentially "green" fossil fuel stations. http://www.windaction.org/articles/36587 http://www.windaction.org/articles/36584 Thu, 22 Nov 2012 19:15:51 GMT Figures obtained by the Scottish Tories under the Freedom of Information Act show 5,528 applications have been made since May 2007, seven times more than under the previous Labour-led administration. One local authority, Aberdeenshire, has received more than 1,000 planning applications over this period, while a series of other rural councils have experienced a 14-fold increase since the SNP came to power. http://www.windaction.org/articles/36584