THE TIMES An Ill Wind Britain’s wind power boom is based on assumptions that have proved wrong and subsidies that are unsustainable Published at 12:01AM, April 3 2014 Except when it carries dust from the Sahara, wind is relatively clean. It has the additional advantage of being free at the point of contact with whatever stands in its way, but it still suffers from three fundamental drawbacks as a source of energy. When it fails to blow it provides no energy at all. When it blows too hard wind turbines have to be switched off because the grid cannot handle the power they produce. Even when it blows at the right strength the power that it delivers via the best turbines money can buy is still too expensive. For more than a decade Britain has sought to overcome these obstacles with subsidies in the form of guaranteed prices for wind power generators. These subsidies have encouraged a boom in wind-turbine construction, onshore and off, but they have not succeeded in bringing down unit costs to the point where wind power is competitive in financial terms with gas. An arbitrary cap on the number of wind farms on British land and in British waters, as proposed by some Conservative backbenchers, is the wrong response. The right course is to honour guarantees already made to investors and then end wind power subsidies. This need not mean the end of wind power. On the contrary, it could set wind power on a new path to a cost-effective future. When Britain’s wind power subsidies were enshrined in law under the EU renewables directive in 2009, it was on the twin assumptions that fossil fuel prices would rise steadily as economies of scale brought down the cost of turbines and their operation. Neither assumption has proved valid. Instead, a fracking revolution led by the United States has exerted steady downward pressure on world gas prices while wind power prices have stayed stubbornly high. Onshore wind currently commands a guaranteed “strike price” of £90 per megawatt-hour while offshore earns generators £155 per Mw-h, compared with £50-60 per Mw-h for fossil fuel generation. Since 2002 wind power subsidies worth £12 billion have been passed on to British consumers. More than 4,000 onshore turbines are in operation, meeting on average 5 per cent of the country’s demand for electricity. Planning permission has been granted for 3,000 more, while roughly 1,000 much larger offshore turbines have pushed wind power’s total contribution to British electricity use to nearly 9 per cent. Britain has pledged to produce 30 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Assuming this target is met and all commitments to wind turbine operators are honoured by this and future governments, the cumulative cost to British consumers could reach a staggering £160 billion by 2040. Already wind power subsidies have proved so generous that the construction of new capacity has far outpaced the building of connections to link it to the grid. In Scotland, wind farms stand idle for long periods waiting for the £1 billion Western Link to be completed. As they wait, their operators have been paid up to £9 million a month to generate precisely nothing. The wind power boom has attracted investment and created jobs. The industry claims to employ 19,000 people, and new offshore farms in the North Sea will boost local East Coast economies. This defence would carry more weight, however, if the price to consumers were not so high and the investment had produced a genuinely British wind power industry. In fact the vast majority of turbines assembled here are manufactured in Denmark, Germany or the United States. Wind power is the most practical form of renewable energy available, but subsidies have allowed the industry to delay technological advances to bring down costs. Wind has a place in the energy supply of any economy in search of a sustainable future, but not on these unsustainable terms. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ COMMENT Andy Kerr 1 hour ago a fracking revolution led by the United States has exerted steady downward pressure on world gas prices while wind power prices have stayed stubbornly high. Rubbish. As an ex-energy trader, please could I ask the Times Leader writers to check their facts before they disseminate such nonsense. UK gas prices were at a low point in the year 2000, since when they have risen, slowly at first then more quickly to peak in 2007 and again in 2009-11. Our gas prices are now some 80% above 2000 prices. That is why our energy bills (heat + electricity) feel so painfully high!. See for example this Parliamentary summary: parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN04153.pdf Asian gas prices are even higher. Peter Prescott 9 hours ago Theres just one snag -- we (the UK) have no right to do what you recommend. Bernard George 10 hours ago The wind power boom has created jobs. Yes, but only in the sense that paying people to juggle would create jobs. The jobs exist only as long as the subsidies flow. Until we have a way of storing electricity wind power is not the most practical form of renewable energy available. That would be nuclear. Wind power is a technological dead end, and a spectacular waste of money. Freddie Moran 10 hours ago Well put - its all hot air and just subsidies - with the most of the hot air coming from Salmond to power. Just look daily and see all the turbines coming up the Clyde on ships from Denmark - according to Salmond we are world class in wind energy, what a joke when even the world class offshore testing center at Hunterston has all its turbines / blades delivered by ship from Denmark. Who is fooling who in this great scam - the blind Salmond leading even the more stupid Yes blind lot. Greg Miles 10 hours ago An excellent article. One thing one might add is that just as we all accept that because landowners possess land it does not entitle them to the gas under the land, logically they should not be entitled to profit from the wind blowing over it apart from a very small amount of recompense for loss of grazing etc.. Alan Hawkes 11 hours ago Does UKIP have a policy on wind turbines? Because there certainly is a need for someone to call an end to this taxpayer-subsidised foolishness. Mr Colin King 11 hours ago ...while roughly 1,000 much larger offshore turbines have pushed wind power’s total contribution to British electricity use to nearly 9 per cent. I think what is meant by this is the potential contribution, when the wind is blowing hard enough, but not too hard. The actual contribution this week has varied from about zero on Tuesday this week to around 10% last Saturday. Depressingly, the average over the last week seems to be about 4% of total demand. That is, the turbines were working at well below their theoretical capacity. This is normal. See gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ for a full analysis of the UKs electricity supply (and very interestingly, the same thing for France). Im sure the Times leader writers understand this important point about real life turbine effectiveness versus the quoted optimal situation. But they could be clearer. _____________________________________________________________________________________
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 11:29:43 +0000
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