Every single one of the 27 million households in Britain has already had to
fork out to wind farmers for not producing any electricity – and that may
be just the tip of the iceberg, according to the GMB
GMB, the energy workers’ union, has today called for subsidies on renewable
energy to paid for through general taxation alongside an investigation into
a bonkers wind power ‘rip off racket’ centred in Scotland.
It follows revelations that since 2010, energy bill payers have paid £328
million to wind farm owners for not generating any energy – most of them in
Scotland.
Meanwhile the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) predicts that the
surcharge the UK’s 27 million households already pay is set to as much as
treble over the next five years to £10 per week.
The average wind farm receives roughly half of its income from the
electricity wholesale price and half from subsidy via the Renewables
Obligation Certificate (ROC) – the cost of which is passed on to consumers
through their energy bills.
When the energy grid reaches capacity, National Grid stops wind farms from
generating, in order to prevent damage to the overhead wires and potential
major system disruption.
When this happens, the wind farm owners retain their wholesale income – but
lose their ROC payments subsidy, which are issued only for the electricity
that is actually sold to consumers.
The wind farm owners then request government compensation for their lost
ROC revenue via what is known as a “constraint payment” – and many will ask
for more compensation than they are losing in income.
Work by John Constable, of the Renewable Energy Foundation, has discovered
that the average compensation being paid was nearly four times the amount
of the lost income.
One wind farm, Crystal Rig, was asking for (and receiving) £991 per mega
watt hour of electricity in compensation when it was losing about £50 per
mega watt hour.
Environmental levies on consumer bills are set to treble from £4.6 billion
to £13.5 billion between 2015/16 and 2021/2 according to the Office for
Budget Responsibility.
Justin Bowden, GMB National Secretary for Energy said: “With the green
subsidies on everyone’s bills set to treble within five years to £10 per
week, GMB is calling for this to be paid for through general taxation along
with an urgent investigation into the wind power rip off racket that is
lining the pockets of big companies at the expense of every single energy
bill payer and household in the country.
“Electricity is a natural monopoly and in this case the public are being
milked by paying twice over – through spiralling consumer energy bills and
taxpayer hand-outs.
“Every single household in Britain has already had to fork out to wind
farmers for not producing any electricity, and that may be just the tip of
the iceberg.
“By any measure this is a bonkers wind power rip off racket which damages
the case for renewables and leaves government with some explaining to do.
“The renewable obligation certificate system rewards and punishes the wrong
people and appears unfit for purpose.
“Where energy subsidies of any sort can be shown to be justified and in the
public interest, then GMB says they should be be paid for out of basic
taxation – a much fairer and more progressive way.”
0 Comments