Maria McCaffery and Mark Wallace debate the costs, subsidies and future of windfarms
The latest announcements make grim reading for anyone looking for any kind of stability in energy policy. It's a real rollercoaster: one day you're up, the next day they're trying their best to choke you. For example, there was good news on Wednesday when the government announced financial support for eight offshore wind and biomass projects, and released its April 2014 Energy Investment Report (EIR) showing that £14bn has been invested, with the Lib Dem energy secretary Ed Davey saying that "the energy sector in the UK has an exciting and bright future". What a difference a day makes. On Thursday the Conservative energy minister Michael Fallon chose the front page of the Telegraph and Radio 4's Today programme to announce that a future Tory government would end subsidies to onshore wind and introduce draconian planning laws to block new schemes.
Figures from Fallon's own department show that onshore wind will be cheaper than new nuclear, and could be cheaper than new gas early in the next decade. To an extent this depends on the price of gas, but even the shale gas industry says that if any boom were to happen it would not cut the cost of gas. So sensible politicians should factor in the risk of gas prices continuing upward, and have good alternatives such as wind in place.
See full Article: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/25/wind-power-uk-scaled-down-windfarms
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