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Wind turbines switched off on 38 days every year
June 14, 2011 by Holly Watt in The Telegraph

Wind farm operators are paid large subsidies, with more than £500 million going on wind power last year under the Renewables Obligation, the Government's mechanism for supporting renewable energy. The average turbine is understood to generate power worth about £150,000 a year, but is awarded incentives in the form of subsidies worth £250,000.

UK wind farms may shut when demand low: National Grid
June 13, 2011 by Karolin Schaps in SKY TV

"It will become increasingly necessary to restrict the output from wind generation onto the system to ensure sufficient thermal capacity is synchronized," National Grid said in a 2020 transmission system report ...Based on historic data, wind turbines will have to be switched off for 38 days every year.

UK faces job losses as businesses threaten to flee abroad to escape green energy levies
June 12, 2011 by Robert Mendick, Edward Malnick and Andrew Cave in Sunday Telegraph

"Not every country in the world has the same commitment to climate change [as the UK] and therefore you may feel commercially disadvantaged," Sir Roger says, adding: "That gives you cause for thought as to where you want to invest." ...Dr Constable said last week: "The consumer interest is being sacrificed in efforts to meet arbitrary targets, apparently at any price. This is not a sustainable policy."

Also filed under [ Impact on Economy]

U.K. should build more nuclear, less offshore wind power
May 9, 2011 by Alex Morales in Bloomberg News

"Nuclear, for the foreseeable future, looks like it will be the lowest cost low-carbon technology," David Kennedy, chief executive of the committee, said in London. "It's only as you get to the end of the 2020s and the beginning of the 2030s that the cost of renewables starts to converge."

U.K. urged to abolish renewable goals, spend less to cut CO2
May 6, 2011 by Catherine Airlie in Bloomberg News

Britain could save 12.5 billion pounds ($20.6 billion) by scaling back ambitious wind projects around its coastline, the London-based research group said in an e-mailed report today. The U.K. should "renegotiate its commitment" to the European Union renewable target, the report said.

End for windfarms in places with no wind
March 6, 2011 by Kirsty Buchanan in Express.co.uk

At the moment, developers have no incentive to set up in windy places and nothing stops them from bidding for taxpayer-subsidised turbines in sheltered areas. Ministers are now reviewing ways to encourage the establishment of farms where high wind speeds ensure as much electricity is generated as possible.

Plans to pay communities to build wind farms under threat
February 11, 2011 by Louise Gray in The Telegraph

Plans to pay communities to erect wind turbines are already in doubt because of increasing chaos caused by the Government's review of green subsidies.

Also filed under [ Tax Breaks & Subsidies]

Britain is becoming less windy, raising doubts over Government's wind farm strategy
January 14, 2011 by Andrew Gilligan in The Telegraph

According to Britain's politicians, covering the landscape with wind farms is still the future. Last month Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, promised a "seismic shift" to wind and other non-carbon forms of generating electricity. The failure of the wind industry to generate much electricity during last month's extreme cold snap has been widely reported.

Customers face huge bill for wind farms that don't work in the cold
January 8, 2011 by Tom Mcghie in The Daily Mail

Jeremy Nicholson, director of the Energy Intensive Users Group, which represents major companies employing hundreds of thousands of workers. He was speaking after new figures showed that during the latest cold snap wind turbines produced less than two per cent of the nation's electricity.

Also filed under [ Impact on Economy]

UK confidence wobbles with scale of investment bill
January 6, 2011 in ICIS Heren

Concern is rife that the huge investments required in the UK's aging energy infrastructure in the decade ahead may not materialise in an uncertain investment climate, despite relative buoyancy within the energy sector, analysts say.

Localism bill promises planning revolution, raises fresh Nimby fears
December 14, 2010 by Will Nichols in Business Green

Arguably the biggest change contained in the bill are new rules allowing for local referendums where people, councillors and councils can instigate a vote on any local issue, including planning proposals. The new referendum powers are likely to present a major challenge to wind farm projects, some of which have faced fierce opposition from local groups.

Britain 'needs 20,000 more wind turbines to stick to green targets'
December 6, 2010 by David Derbyshire in The Daily Mail

Experts say the plans will cost around 1 per cent of the UK's gross domestic product by 2030 - the equivalent of £30billion a year. The report also called for the end of the free market for electricity companies and the return to a centralised planned system of power generation.

Aid budget blown on wind farms
November 20, 2010 in Daily Express Reporter

Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Taxpayers are paying enough for investment in extremely expensive and inefficient wind turbines here in the UK without having to finance expensive energy abroad as well."

Aggreko boss: scrap renewables obligation or the lights will go out
November 14, 2010 by Steven Vass in Herald Scotland

Soames blames the current UK energy investment climate for the recent decisions by energy companies to postpone new power stations. "We need a new market structure that will allow as far as possible a level playing field between renewables, nuclear and thermal power stations so that people can build all three types of technologies."

'Bonkers' green energy risks power shortages
November 14, 2010 by Simon Johnson in The Telegraph

Scotland is in "serious danger" of suffering power shortages over the next decade thanks to Alex Salmond's "bonkers" green energy policies, the head of one of the country's largest generators has warned. Rupert Soames warned Scotland will be in 'deep trouble' if it relies on green energy.

MP wants restrictions put on wind turbines
November 13, 2010 by John Crossley in Burton Mail

Conservative Andrew Griffiths is co-sponsoring the Bill, which if it became law, would enable councils to only approve applications for structures if they were at least 1km away from the nearest residential property, or 2km for larger turbines and wind farms.

Wind farm opponents win greater powers over "skewed" planning system
November 11, 2010 in This is Cornwall

He said the planning system had become "skewed", favouring the development of giant wind turbines over protecting environmentally rich regions such as the Westcountry. Wind farm plans have repeatedly come up against angry opposition in Devon and Cornwall.

Also filed under [ Zoning/Planning]

Wind farms could be forced out by oil rigs
November 3, 2010 by Louise Gray in Telegraph.co.uk

Plans to build massive wind farms off the coast of Britain are in doubt due to an obscure piece of legislation that means oil companies can force turbines to be moved if fossil fuels are discovered in the area.

Power failure: UK's wind farm plans in disarray
October 28, 2010 by Oliver Wright in The Independent

More than 230 separate local campaign groups against wind farms are operating across the UK, from Scotland and Kent to Norfolk, Yorkshire and Cornwall. These groups are scoring striking successes in defeating planned wind farms - even when faced with the weight of official recommendations.

European renewables industry staggered first by recession, now by budget cuts
October 21, 2010 by Jeremy Lovell in ClimateWire

"The design of a feed-in tariff mechanism is innately uneconomic. They are great for investors but very difficult for governments to sustain," said Jim Fitzgerald, assistant director in consultancy Ernst & Young's renewable energy practice. "The real lesson here for investors is that if something is too good to be true, then it probably is just that," he told ClimateWire.

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