Windfarm subsidy plans to rack up loss of £700million – Press and Journal

By Ryan Crighton

Government-backed plans to build hundreds of wind turbines on the Northern
and Western Isles will lose £700million, it has emerged.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey announced last month the islands could be in line
for scores of new windfarm schemes after the UK Government confirmed plans
to offer special incentives.

He hopes to offer green energy projects on Orkney, Shetland and the Western
Isles a higher subsidy than those given on the mainland.

However, last night it emerged that the plans will cost up to £900million –
but only make £200million back.

The figures are contained within the UK Government’s own impact assessment
of the project. The scheme is already under fire from campaigners, who
claimed turbines were killing rare birds, and that the benefits of
windfarms were being exaggerated.

Mr Davey has proposed a “strike price” of £115 per MWh generated from
onshore wind, which is more than the £100 offered in the rest of the country.

It will be the first time a different rate has been given to a particular
area, and is expected to pave the way for many new turbine developments in
t he Northern and Western Isles.

A study commissioned this year by the UK and Scottish Governments showed
major investment – and the potential for 10,000 jobs from investment in
wind, wave and tidal energy schemes – was being held back because of the
high cost of transmitting electricity.

Mr Davey confirmed the new strike price, due to be finalised in December,
during his speech at the Lib Dem conference in Glasgow last month.

Since then, a full economic assessment carried out by the Department for
Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has confirmed that the scheme will lose
£700million.

A spokesman for Decc said the government’s stake will be about £80million –
not the full £900million. Nevertheless, Scottish Renewables has welcomed
the subsidy plan.

But Kevin Learmonth, a campaigner against the 103 turbine Viking Energy
windfarm planned for Shetland, said: “It’s not the government paying these
subsidies, it’s going to be consumers.”