Impact of wind power on carbon emissions – Financial Times

Sir, John Kay (“Governing by announcement leaves us all out in the cold”, October 1) makes a number of excellent points, but he is mistaken about the impact of wind power on carbon emissions. When the wind stations are running, they need only a small amount of back-up plant and the emissions from these do not seriously affect the overall carbon savings. When it is calm, we have been turning on gas-fired stations instead, because our coal-fired stations have been generating anyway. Investment in gas-fired stations may have been deterred by policy uncertainty, but building them would do nothing to reduce the output of coal-fired stations at present, because at recent fuel and carbon prices, coal stations cost less to run.
Richard Green, Alan and Sabine Howard Professor of Sustainable Energy Business, Imperial College Business School, UK