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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.
Also filed under [
Impact on Economy]
The £9million bonus bonanza dished out to green energy bureaucrats
March 30, 2013 by Daniel Martin in Daily Mail
March 30, 2013 by Daniel Martin in Daily Mail
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.
A third more Scottish wind turbines built in one year
March 28, 2013 by Simon Johnson in The Telegraph
March 28, 2013 by Simon Johnson in The Telegraph
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."
Vestas, Areva tell U.K. ministers job growth threatened by delay
March 11, 2013 by Alex Morales in Bloomberg News
March 11, 2013 by Alex Morales in Bloomberg News
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.
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.
Also filed under [
Offshore Wind|
Europe]
Fuel bills will keep soaring warns energy watchdog: Green targets could trigger 1970s-style power blackouts
February 20, 2013 by Tamara Cohen and Peter Campbell in Daily Mail
February 20, 2013 by Tamara Cohen and Peter Campbell in Daily Mail
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.
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Impact on Economy]
Britain 'on the brink' of energy crisis, warns regulator
February 20, 2013 by Rowena Mason in The Telegraph
February 20, 2013 by Rowena Mason in The Telegraph
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.
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Impact on Economy]
Scotland's green energy target 'would be threatened by independence vote'
February 11, 2013 by Severin Carrell in The Guardian
February 11, 2013 by Severin Carrell in The Guardian
"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."
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".
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies]
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.
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Ireland]
"Shocking" wind farm contracts set up by the Government could put £300 on electricity bills
January 13, 2013 by James Lyons in The Mirror
January 13, 2013 by James Lyons in The Mirror
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."
'Substantial' rise in wind farm bills for independent Scotland
December 12, 2012 by Simon Johnson in The Telegraph
December 12, 2012 by Simon Johnson in The Telegraph
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.
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.
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.
A truce over wind farms...but how long will it last?
November 23, 2012 by Rowena Mason in The Telegraph
November 23, 2012 by Rowena Mason in The Telegraph
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.
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.
Davey defends contentious energy agreement
November 23, 2012 by Jim Pickard, Pilita Clark and Hannah Kuchler in Financial Times
November 23, 2012 by Jim Pickard, Pilita Clark and Hannah Kuchler in Financial Times
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.
Wind farms to increase energy bills by £178 a year
November 22, 2012 by Rowena Mason in The Telegraph
November 22, 2012 by Rowena Mason in The Telegraph
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.
Also filed under [
Impact on Economy]
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.
The First Minister told MSPs last month around 18,000 people were employed in the renewables industry but even the trade body that represents wind farm companies put the total at around 11,000. ...Opposition parties said the First Minister had "shamed his office" and "lies instinctively", questioning how voters could trust him to run a separate Scotland.