UK energy secretary Amber Rudd: “No new public subsidy for onshore wind
farms”. SHETLAND wind farm developer Viking Energy insists “good progress”
continues to be made on their controversial 103 turbine project, despite
fears raised following UK energy secretary Amber Rudd’s keynote speech on
long term national energy policy on Wednesday.
Addressing the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, Rudd spelled out
the Tory government’s priorities for this parliament, namely gas, nuclear
and offshore wind and re.
The Scottish government immediately voiced alarm at Rudd’s silence on
fairer electricity transmission costs, which would allow Scottish
(including Shetland) generators to compete with their English counterparts.
Scottish Renewables chief executive Niall Stewart said Viking Energy had
been left “in limbo” by the government.
Viking Energy will not be able to put forward its plans to government
through the Contract for Difference (CFD) auction process until possibly
late in 2016.
Scottish Renewables chief executive Niall Stewart: “Onshore wind farms on
Scotland’s islands have been pushed back.’ The uncertainty this delay
creates has affected plans for an interconnector cable to link the Viking
wind farm to mainland Scotland.
This year the government’s Electricity Networks Strategy Group (ENSG)
revised its estimated date for the interconnector to be completed from
early 2021.
Now the ENSG says the estimated delivery date for the 600MW cable is “TBC
(to be confirmed) resulting from continuing uncertainty around CFD for the
second delivery period”.
Stewart said “delivery timelines for onshore wind projects on Scotland’s
islands (had been) pushed back”.
This, he said, “would in turn delay the delivery of grid connections,
meaning those developments will not be able to contribute to Scotland’s 100
per cent renewable power target (by 2020).”
Viking Energy’s head of development Aaron Priest: “We continue to make good
progress.” Scottish energy minister Fergus Ewing added: “There is further
bad news for Scotland’s renewables industry with no support for the
cheapest renewable technologies, such as onshore wind, and a further year’s
delay to awarding contracts to new renewables capacity, which is
particularly concerning for projects on Scottish islands, and Scottish
offshore wind developments.”
Viking Energy Shetland’s head of development Aaron Priest played down any
impact Rudd’s policy speech had on their plans to build the third largest
wind farm in Scotland.
“We continue to make good progress on the Viking project and, as before,
expect to be in a position to bid for a CfD contract in an auction in
2016,” he said.
“We will liaise with government on the exact timing and detail of this
auction.”
During her speech, Rudd said: “We have enough onshore wind in the pipeline
to meet our 2020 expectations.
“That is why we set out in our manifesto that we would end any new public
subsidy for onshore wind farms.”
Her hopes for low carbon electricity generation to reduce the UK’s impact
on climate change hinge around building new nuclear power stations, backing
the fracking industry and supporting offshore wind power only if it can
reduce its costs.
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