Resource Library Category: Emissions (88 items)
Documents presented here are not the product of nor are they necessarily endorsed by National Wind Watch. This resource library is provided to assist anyone wishing to research the issue of industrial wind power and the impacts of its development. The information should be evaluated by each reader to come to their own conclusions about the many areas of debate.
Threats from industrial wind turbines to Ontario’s wildlife and biodiversity
Source: Stelling, Keith; and Petrie, Scott
Introduction
The precautionary principle outlined in The Bergen Agreement, signed by Canada in 1990, has become, over the past fifteen years, part of customary international law and has been included in virtually every recently adopted treaty and policy document related to the protection and preservation of the environment. It states: “policies must be based on the precautionary principle. Environmental measures must anticipate, prevent and attack the causes of environmental degradation. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation”.
The unprecedented rapidity with which industrial wind turbine developments are being proposed and constructed in Ontario, raises major concerns about the efficacy of the Green Energy Act which has allowed and promoted this phenomenon.
1. Adverse environmental effects from industrial wind turbines
Industrial wind turbines do not have a benign environmental foot print as has been claimed.
- Biologists are observing habitat fragmentation and habitat loss, wildlife disturbance and life history disruption when turbines are placed in natural habitats.
- Bird and bat abundance declines at wind turbine sites and this can become more pronounced with time.
- Disruption of ecological links results in habitat abandonment by some species.
- The loss of population vigour and overall density resulting from reduced survival or reduced breeding productivity is a particular concern for declining populations.
- The cumulative effects of multiple on- and off-shore wind developments have not been considered.
- Collision mortality resulting from turbines and new transmission lines is increased during adverse weather conditions and migratory seasons. Especially vulnerable are raptors, passerines (songbirds), monarch butterflies, and bats. The consequential cost to agriculture from loss of pollination and natural insect control is a concern.
- In addition there are serious concerns that turbine noise impacts within- and between-species communications, including predator defence.
- Offshore installations have the added risk of causing waterfowl and waterbird displacement from feeding areas and migratory corridors, contaminant upwelling, and changes in fish communities.
- Placing turbines in close association with coastal wetlands can severely compromise movements and foraging of migratory waterfowl.
2. Ontario bird and bat mortality studies: Wolfe Island
Almost all post operational studies of wildlife mortalities from turbines in Ontario have been unavailable to the public, allowing government and industry to contend that wind turbines kill very few birds. The avian mortality records from Wolfe Island, however, have now disclosed the highest recorded rate of raptor casualties outside California. Each of the 86 industrial wind turbines on Wolfe Island killed an average of 13.4 birds during the first year of operation. Some of the species killed are already experiencing population declines: for example, the Tree Swallow and the Bobolink. Until we have public access to independent mortality studies, we will not know the full impact.
Albert Manville, Senior Wildlife Biologist, Division of Migratory Bird management at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has warned: “The numbers of Bird Species of Conservation Concern killed by wind turbines is increasing, and that’s troubling. These species are already declining, in some cases rather precipitously.”
3. Serious flaws in the Green Energy Act
The government pushed through the Green Energy Act (2009) with negligible legislative or public discussion. The Act exempted renewable energy projects from much of Ontario’s existing environmental legislation.
- One of its amendments to existing statutes, “Schedule G”, exempts renewable energy projects from the Environmental Protection Act, frustrating the purpose of that Act.
- Another, “Schedule K”, removes planning authority from local municipalities and precludes compliance with the Provincial Policy Statement.
- “Schedule L” removes approval rights from Conservation Authorities preventing them from stopping renewable energy projects on their lands.
One of the most troubling provisions of the GEA is the reversal of onus clause that requires citizens to prove a project’s harm to the environment or human health. The Chatham-Kent tribunal demonstrated that confronting government and proponent lawyers is well beyond the financial means of most Ontarians, making a mockery of the Statement of Environmental Principles which insists that the need for public engagement and public consultation is vital to sound environmental decision- making. It also debilitates the Environmental Bill of Rights (1994) which encouraged “enhanced ongoing engagement with the public as part of environmental decision making”.
4. Regulations
An essential flaw in the Regulations is the “fast tracking” provision for environmental assessments which allows the proponents of renewable energy projects to submit their own environmental screening report by hiring an accommodating consultant. Many questions have been raised as to the scientific rigour of these reports:
- Consultants often lack the proper qualifications, specialized knowledge and technical expertise to provide sound advice (for example, pertaining to waterfowl).
- Studies lack scientific rigour and fail to adequately consider existing peer reviewed literature.
- There is an insufficient use of local expert knowledge during the planning process and not enough use of available/historic data.
- Relative to Europe and the United States, there has been insufficient pre- construction monitoring at proposed wind turbine sites in Ontario (often days/months as opposed to years).
- Post-construction studies lack scientific rigour and are not standardized.
- Times chosen to make observations are often unsuitable (e.g. after or before
migratory seasons and during daylight hours while most migrations of birds
and bats take place at night). - Radar observations are not being used to monitor nocturnal migrations and
aerial observations are not being used for determining waterfowl populations even though these are the best methods for accurate assessment. - Most “studies” are based on casual observations done over an insufficient number of days, seasons, and weather conditions and they do not include
the multi-seasonal or multi-year observations necessary to determine effects
on fluctuating populations. - The methodology of the reports has been questioned and serious omissions pointed out: for example, they fail to set any a priori criteria for determining if the wind development in question will have adverse impacts on birds or bats.
Proponent-commissioned reports have generally been rubber-stamped by the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Natural Resources. The Wolfe Island project, for example, was approved despite its location on a major migratory bird corridor adjacent to provincially significant wetlands, staging areas and an Important Bird Area (IBA).
Although the industry continues to claim that it avoids placing turbines near sensitive habitats, far too many projects have been constructed, approved or proposed near critical ecosystems which support threatened species, provincially significant ANSIs and provincially significant wetlands—e.g. Wolfe Island, Ostrander Point, Arran Lake, Point Pelee National Park, coastal wetlands associated with Lake St. Clair, and Manitoulin Island among them. Numerous wind turbines have been proposed for construction in close association with coastal wetlands along the lower Great Lakes (Lakes St. Clair, Erie, and Ontario). Coastal wetlands provide critically important staging habitat for nearly 30 species of migratory waterfowl. In fact, millions of waterfowl use these wetlands each spring and fall to rest, feed and acquire the body fat necessary for migration and reproduction. Approximately 85% of our coastal wetlands have already been drained and converted to agriculture and urban development; those that remain are regularly being compromised by additional human impacts and invasive species. Consequently, it is critically
important that we do our utmost to conserve and protect all remaining coastal wetlands.
There are other problems and inconsistencies with the Regulations and Guidelines.
- The 120 metre setback from Significant Wildlife Habitat (compared to 550 metres from human habitations) is not biologically defensible. The regulations even allow proponents to place developments within Significant Wildlife Habitats when they claim they can “mitigate” adverse effects.
- The “Bird Habitat Assessment Process” requires post construction monitoring of avian mortality but does not require an adequate assessment of wildlife displacement.
- Cumulative impacts of onshore and offshore industrial wind turbines (including those being proposed for American waters) are not being considered.
- Guidelines don’t consider bird mortality to be significant until 18 birds/turbine/year are killed. This is 7.2 times the NA average and is not biologically defensible.
- Guidelines don’t consider the mortality of raptors of provincial conservation concern (i.e. Bald Eagles) to be significant unless 0.2 raptors/ turbine/year are killed. Therefore, a development with 100 turbines that killed 19 Bald Eagles per year would not require mitigation.
- Community consultation (a requirement of the Green Energy Act) has been a dismal failure with proponents ignoring and evading community concerns
and refusing to hold public consultation meetings in preference for open house product showcases.
5. Advice of international biologists
Repeatedly biologists around the world have stated the obvious and simple warning: industrial wind turbines must be kept well away from sensitive natural habitats, including important migratory corridors.
- “Avoid locating wind farms in regional or internationally important bird or bat areas and/or migration routes”. Everaert and Kuijken 2007.
- “Developers should avoid sites that are important to wildlife”. –Dr. Mark Avery, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, U.K.
- “Wind turbine developments should not be placed within 1000 meters of waterfowl roost sites; not be placed within 1 kilometre of staging areas; not be placed in flight corridors between roosts and feeding grounds; not be placed on major migratory corridors, and not be erected in areas where the wind turbine development +500 m buffer zone occupies more than 1% of the known feeding areas at a site; not be placed in agricultural fields traditionally used by large flocks of waterfowl”. –Bjarke Laubek, M.Sc., Waterfowl Biologist with extensive experience working on waterfowl and turbine placement in Denmark.
- “Wind turbine developments should not be sited near populations of birds of conservation importance, particularly Anseriformes”. –Stewart, et al. 2004.
- “Avoid placing turbines in documented locations of protected wildlife, known local bird migration pathways or near wetlands and staging areas and avoid known daily movement flyways between roosting and feeding
areas, as well as bat breeding and nursery colonies or migration corridors. –U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - “Wind turbine developments must no longer be built in any natural areas”. –Spanish Ornithological Society.
- “If we are to save our emblematic bird species from this new threat, it is urgent to impose a moratorium on windfarm construction and to call for a fully independent commission to investigate the whole windfarm matter, starting with the effectiveness of this intermittent, unreliable, and ruinous form of energy”. –Mark Duchamp, Save the Eagles International.
6. Recommendations
Revision of the Green Energy Act and its Regulations and guidelines is imperative to bring it into compliance with pre-existing environmental protection legislation.
- Amendments must be made to loopholes in the Act which exempt renewable energy projects from the Planning Act (and Provincial Policy Statements), the Environmental Protection Act, and the Conservation Authorities Act, and Regulations which change the purpose of the Statement of Environmental Principles and the Environmental Bill of Rights.
- Regulations must be revised to reflect the recommendations of scientists and biologists as outlined above. Regulations, guidelines and procedures must be revised to require independent mortality and displacement studies and avoid the problems related to proponent-commissioned environmental surveys outlined above. Biologically defensible setback restrictions and mortality levels must be established for wildlife habitats and migratory corridors.
- Industrial wind turbines must not be placed within 2 km of coastal and other provincially significant wetlands and should not be placed on major migratory corridors or in agricultural fields traditionally used by large concentrations of wildlife.
- All post and pre-construction monitoring must be made available to the public to allow for participation in environmental decision making as required under the Statement of Environmental Principles and the Environmental Bill of Rights.
The onus of proof of environmental damage must be reversed to make developers of renewable energy projects responsible for their actions and bring these projects into compliance with the Provincial Policy Statement.
7. Questionable effectiveness in saving GHG emissions
Here we discuss wildlife issues related to poorly regulated industrial wind turbine development but the rationale for building the turbines should also be examined.
The ideology behind industrial wind turbine installation has not been validated by experience. It is now apparent that wind turbines will not diminish Ontario’s carbon footprint just as they have failed to do anywhere else in the world.
Government advisors and ministers did not listen to the warnings of electricity generation professionals who pointed out the practical complications of adding intermittent and unpredictable wind energy to the grid. Stability can only be maintained by running fossil-fuelled plants inefficiently on standby to back up all potential wind production.
European experience has demonstrated that coal plants cannot be closed in exchange for non-base load wind energy. Germany, which has installed over 20,000 industrial wind turbines, has increased CO2 and other GHG emissions and new coal plants have had to be built to compensate for the destabilizing effect of wind energy. Ontario is building more gas plants for this same reason.
Bennet & McBee (2011) were the first to systematically assess the emission reduction performance of wind generation based on hourly generation and emissions data from Colorado and Texas in the Bentek study. It shows that previous claims were significantly overstated and that actual CO2 reductions are either so small as to be insignificant or too expensive to be practical.
Summary
The dwindling areas of wetland and other specialized ecosystems which provide habitat for threatened and endangered species are especially vulnerable to disturbance and degradation from this form of rural industrialization. Migratory avian species including raptors, waterfowl, waterbirds, passerines and bats are particularly vulnerable to displacement from critical habitats and collision mortality. Government and developers have downplayed the negative environmental footprint of wind turbines. However, as developments proliferate, post construction monitoring points to unforeseen cumulative effects and many looming
environmental concerns. Ontario’s Green Energy Act with its inadequate regulations and guidelines governing the siting of renewable energy installations is urgently in need of revision. Better information on the effects of industrial wind turbines must be obtained through rigorous study and the precautionary principle of the Bergen Agreement adhered to before further construction proceeds and incalculable irreversible damage is done to Ontario’s natural heritage.
Keith Stelling, MA, MNIMH, Dip. Phyt., MCPP
Friends of Arran Lake
Central Bruce-Grey Wind Concerns Ontario
Scott Petrie, PhD
Executive Director, Long Point Waterfowl
Adjunct Professor, University of Western Ontario
References
Barrios, L., and A. Rodriguez. 2004. Behavioural and environmental correlates of soaring bird mortality at on-shore wind turbines. Journal of Applied Ecology. 41:72-81.
Bennet, P., and B. McBee. 2011. The Wind Power Paradox: Bentek Market Alert. Crowder, A.A., and J.M. Bristow. 1988. The future of waterfowl habitats in the Canadian lower Great Lakes wetlands. Journal of Great Lakes Research. 14:115-127.
Dennis, D.G.,, G.B. McCullough, N.R. North, and R.K. Ross. 1984. An updated assessment of migrant waterfowl use of Ontario shorelines of the southern Great Lakes. Pages 37-42in Waterfowl Studies in Ontario, S.G. Curtis, D.G. Dennis and H. Boyd, editors. Canadian Wildlife Service Occasional Paper No 54.
Desholm, M. 2006. Wind farm related mortality among avian migrants – a remote sensing study and model analysis. Ph.D. Thesis, National Environmental Research Institute, Denmark.
Everaert,J.,and E.Kuijken.2007.WindturbinesandbirdsinFlanders(Belgium): Preliminary summary of the mortality research results: Belgian Research Institute for Nature and Forest.
Frondel, M., N. Ritter, C. Vance, F. Scheffer, and C. Schmidt. 2009. Economic impacts from the promotion of renewable energies: The German experience. Final Report: Rheinisch-Westfa?lisches Institut fu?r Wirtschaft sforschung (Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research).
Herdendorf, C.E. 1992. Lake Erie coastal wetlands: an overview. Journal of Great Lakes Research. 18:533-551.
Irish Electricity Supply Board (ESB). 2004. Impact of Wind Power Generation in Ireland on the Operation of Conventional Plant and the Economic Implications: ESB National Grid.
Kingsley, A., and B. Whittam. 2005. Wind Turbines and Birds: A Background Review: Environment Canada / Canadian Wildlife Service, 81 pages.
Kunz, T., E. Arnett, W. Erickson, A. Hoar, G. Johnson, R. Larkin, M. Strickland, R. Thresher, and M. Tuttle. 2007. Ecological impacts of wind energy development on bats: questions, research needs, and hypotheses: Journal of Wildlife Management 71:2449–2486; DOI: 10.2193/2007-270.
Liik, O., R. Oidram, and M. Keel. 2003. Estimation of real emissions reduction caused by wind generators: Tallinn Technical University, Estonia.
Manville, A.M. 2005. Bird strikes and electrocutions at power lines, communication towers, and wind turbines: state of the art and state of the science – next steps toward mitigation: Proceedings 3rd Internatl. Partners in Flight Conference. USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-191, Vol. 2: 1051-1064.
Ontario Power Authority (OPA). October 2007. Integrated Power System Plan.
Petrie, S.A. 1998. Waterfowl and Wetlands of Long Point Bay and Old Norfolk County: Present Conditions and Future Options for Conservation. Unpublished Norfolk Land Stewardship Council Report. Long Point Waterfowl, Port Rowan, Ontario.
Petrie, S.A., S. Badzinski, and K.L. Wilcox. 2002. Population trends and habitat use of Tundra Swans staging at Long Point, Lake Erie. Waterbirds: 25:143-149.
Petrie, S.A., and K.L. Wilcox. 2003. Migration chronology of Eastern Population Tundra Swans. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 81: 861-870.
Prince, H.H., P.I. Padding, and R.W. Knapton. 1992. Waterfowl use of the Laurentian Great Lakes. Journal of Great Lakes Research. 18:673-699.
Schummer, M. L. 2005. Comparisons of resource use by Buffleheads, Common Goldeneyes and Long-Tailed Ducks during winter on northeastern Lake Ontario. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Western Ontario. London, Ontario.
Stewart, G. B., and A.S. Pullin. 2004. Effects of wind turbines on bird abundance; Systematic Review No.4: Centre for Evidence-based Conservation, University of Birmingham, England, 49p.
Wind and gas: Back-up or back-out – “That is the question”
Source: Méray, Nora
The focus of this study is to explore the effect that the deployment of a large share of wind energy has on the Northwest European power generation mix in the current market circumstances. The starting point of the study is that wind power is added to the power generation system with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions. Several other studies, papers and reports have been published on this subject which underline the complexity of the issue. Facts, projections and speculations from these studies have been assembled and analysed to give an as objective as possible overview on the foreseen effects of an increasing share of wind energy. As such, the study aims to give general insight in what would happen to the power mix if more wind energy were to be introduced, what the contribution to CO2 emissions reduction would be, and the potential role of natural gas and other fuels in handling long periods (> 4 hours) of low wind supply. The goal has not been to deliver an all-encompassing literature study, nor to calculate every scenario we could envisage, but rather to unravel some of the complexities related to back- up capacity required in an electricity system with a large share of variable power. …
Conclusion
Wind power has a low capacity credit (in NW Europe). This means that wind power does not significantly replace other generating capacity; alternative power sources need to be in place, together with new installed wind capacity for at least 80% of installed wind capacity, to ensure that there is sufficient back-up to meet market demand at times of reduced wind power supply. Most of this will have to come from conventional power plants. If hydro capacity from Norway is available, this back-up capacity could be reduced to approximately 70%.
Wind capacity will thus essentially be “surplus” to the necessary dispatchable system capacity, and thus costs of wind capacity will essentially come on top of the costs of the base conventionalcapacity. The extra costs of wind capacity can be reduced or compensated by the abated fuel and carbon costs from conventional generation.
The effectiveness of wind power to reduce CO2 emissions is directly related to the level of CO2 prices. In today’s energy market with low CO2 prices, new installed wind power tends primarily to replace gas-fired power, resulting in limited CO2 reduction, and thus becomes an expensive and less effective way of reducing CO2 emissions. …
Clingendael International Energy Programme
December 2011
Download original document: ‘Wind and gas: Back-up or back-out – “That is the question”’
Measuring the Performance of Wind Energy Projects
Source: Virginia Wind
Assuring the Success of the Commonwealth Energy Policy
The General Assembly has found that energy is essential to the health, safety, welfare and economy of the Commonwealth and that state government should facilitate the availability and delivery of reliable and adequate supplies of energy to industrial, commercial, and residential users at reasonable costs. The General Assembly has also enumerated energy objectives (§ 67-101), set forth a Commonwealth Energy Policy (§ 67-102), and directed development of a non-regulatory Virginia Energy Plan (§ 67-201). Among the objectives addressed by the Code is promotion of alternative energy sources, which, compared to traditional energy resources, may be less polluting of the Commonwealth’s air and waters. Alternative energy includes electricity generated through the use of wind turbines.
Although the Commonwealth has no experience with commercial-scale wind energy projects, the General Assembly has sought to promote the development of such projects through expedited environmental permitting by establishment of a Permit By Rule administered by the Department of Environmental Quality (§ 10.1-1197.6). In addition, the General Assembly has directed the State Corporation Commission to approve increased consumer electricity rates for utilities that demonstrate attainment of the Commonwealth’s
Renewable Portfolio Standard (§ 56-585.2). Fortunately, the General Assembly has also recognized the need to establish a procedure for measuring the implementation of the Commonwealth Energy Policy (§ 67-100). It makes sense to assure that the desired benefits of energy production are obtained, that harm to the public interests are minimized, and that future revisions of the Virginia Energy Plan are informed by experience and data.
The General Assembly may have been well-intentioned in promoting wind energy development in the mix of alternatives, but new information about the efficacy of commercial-scale wind energy generation indicates that objective prediction and verification of performance is warranted.
- The 2010 Virginia Energy Plan estimates the costs of new electricity generation sources, including wind generation facilities. Based on data provided for new facilities entering service in 2016, the cost of electricity generated with onshore wind projects will be 49% greater than the cost of electricity generated with conventional coal-fired power plants and 25% greater than the cost of electricity generated with nuclear power plants. (Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy 2010. The Virginia Energy Plan, www.dmme.virginia.gov/DE/VAEnergyPlan/VEP-2010.shtml)
- Although the National Research Council predicted in 2007 that onshore wind energy development may offset carbon emissions by a small amount, a 2010 report by Bentek Energy, LLC reached a different conclusion. Research presented in the report suggests that contrary to expectations and the objectives of Colorado’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, wind energy development has resulted in increased emissions of sulfur, nitrogen, and carbon. This undesirable result is attributed to the inefficient management of coal-fired power plants that is required to accommodate the variable and intermittent electricity generation achieved by wind turbine facilities. (Bentek Energy, LLC, 2010. How Less Became More: Wind, Power, and Unintended Consequences in the Colorado Energy Market, www.bentekenergy.com)
- A 2007 report by the National Research Council projected that U.S. onshore wind power development through 2020 will achieve no reduction in demand for electricity from other sources, will provide no reduction in sulfur and nitrogen emissions, and may offset carbon dioxide emissions by only 1.2 to 4.5% from the levels of emissions that would otherwise occur from electricity generation. The report further concluded that because the density of the onshore wind resource is less for the Mid-Atlantic region states than for the country as a whole, the benefits in terms of electricity supply and emissions reductions will be less than for the country as a whole. (NRC, 2007. Environmental Impacts of Wind Energy Projects, National Academy Press, www.nap.edu/catalog/11935.html)
Determination of both the projected and realized performance of wind energy generation projects is absolutely necessary in the proper administration of state incentives and licensing.
Wind energy generation projects must be subject to SCC licensing and the requirement to obtain a certificate of convenience and necessity.
SCC approval of wind energy generation facilities should further be conditioned upon provision of:
- analysis that objectively calculates the costs and benefits of proposed wind energy projects
- annual reports that document the performance of installed wind energy projects
These analyses and reports should be based on publically reviewable data and methods that quantify effects on the reliability of electricity service and costs to consumers, electricity generation on an annual and monthly basis and during peak demand periods, and reductions in air pollution obtained through displacement of electricity generation by traditional energy sources. Prior to issuance of any licensing action under Title 56, the SCC must verify that the data and calculations concerning these costs and benefits are credible and accurate and that proposed projects are necessary and in the public interest.
Finally, it is imperative that future periodic revisions of the Virginia Energy Plan incorporate knowledge and experience gained from existing wind energy projects and that plan revisions be subject to public review and comment.
Electricity costs: The folly of wind-power
Source: Lea, Ruth
Wind-power: inordinately expensive and ineffective at cutting CO2 emissions
The focus on wind-power, driven by the renewables targets, is preventing Britain from effectively reducing CO2 emissions, while crippling energy users with additional costs, according to a new Civitas report. The report finds that wind-power is unreliable and requires back-up power stations to be available in order to maintain a consistent electricity supply to households and businesses. This means that energy users pay twice: once for the window-dressing of renewables, and again for the fossil fuels that the energy sector continues to rely on. Contrary to the implied message of the Government’s approach, the analysis shows that wind-power is not a low-cost way of reducing emissions.
Electricity Costs: the folly of wind-power, by economist Ruth Lea, uses Government-commissioned estimates of the costs of electricity generation in the UK to calculate the most cost-effective technologies. When all costs are included, gas-fired power is the most cost-efficient method of generating electricity in the short-term, while nuclear power stations become the most cost-efficient in the medium-term.
All that wind takes a lot of gas
Wind-power is acknowledged to cost more than traditional fossil fuel power stations. But estimates from Government-commissioned reports suggest that, when the cost of CO2 emissions is included, onshore wind-power becomes one of the more cost-effective means of generating electricity. Offshore wind does not however. [See p. 12 - p. 23] Unfortunately, these estimates fail to factor in all the costs of wind-power. These costs are due to the fact that energy output from wind is unpredictable and rarely occurs in areas of most demand:
… wind-power is unreliable and requires conventional back-up generating capacity when wind speeds are, for example, very low or rapidly varying … [p. 14]
This means that wind farms need to be supported by conventional capacity including gas-fired power stations that can be switched on whenever the available wind fails to match demand for electricity. Lea cites research by Colin Gibson, former Power Network Director at the National Grid Group, who has produced some of the most comprehensive estimates for these ‘add-on costs’.
When these add-on costs are included, the resultant levelised generating costs (£ per megawatt hour) for the main electricity generating technologies are, for medium-term projects:
- Nuclear pressurised water reactors (PWR): £67.8 per MWh.
- Gas-fired combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGT): £96.5 per MWh.
- Gas CCGT with carbon capture and storage (CCS): £102.6 per MWh.
- Coal (ASC) with CCS: £111.9 per MWh.
- Advanced supercritical (ASC) coal-fired power plants: £133.2 per MWh.
- Onshore wind: £146.3 per MWh (including ‘add-on costs’ of £60 per MWh).
- Offshore wind: £179.4 per MWh (including ‘add-on costs’ of £67 per MWh).
(Note: one megawatt hour can run approximately 1000 desktop computers for 8 hours)
The most cost-effective technologies are nuclear and gas-fired. Onshore, and especially offshore, wind technologies are inordinately expensive.
Pumping out more CO2
Besides the prohibitive costs, the report shows that wind-power, backed by conventional gas-fired generation, can emit more CO2 than the most efficient gas turbines running alone:
In a comprehensive quantitative analysis of CO2 emissions and wind-power, Dutch physicist C. le Pair has recently shown that deploying wind turbines on “normal windy days” in the Netherlands actually increased fuel (gas) consumption, rather than saving it, when compared to electricity generation with modern high-efficiency gas turbines. Ironically and paradoxically the use of wind farms therefore actually increased CO2 emissions, compared with using efficient gas-fired combined cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) at full power. [p. 30]
This means that the cost of having wind is not just carried by consumers but by the environment as well.
Caught in a cross-wind
The report explains how two competing environmental policies have generated a perverse set of priorities. The renewables targets have forced the energy sector to focus on more expensive, less reliable power sources, rather than those most likely to reduce emissions while keeping costs to the rest of economy competitive:
- The Climate Change Act 2008 requires that Britain’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions be cut by 80 per cent by 2050 compared with the 1990 level and by 34% by around 2020.
- The EU’s Renewables Directive (2009) commits the UK to sourcing 15% of final energy consumption (FEC) from renewables by 2020. Renewable energy sources include wind, hydro and biomass, but not nuclear power. [pp. 4-5]
This means that UK legislation separately specifies an outcome (reduced CO2 emissions) and a process, more renewable energy.
The outcome itself is substantial and threatens many Britons’ standard of life and employment prospects if not achieved efficiently:
… consultants Redpoint Energy point out “… meeting these targets will mean a radical change in the way the UK produces and consumes energy over the coming decades.” [p. 4]
Unfortunately, the legislated process is ineffective at reaching its supposed outcome. The result of forcing unreliable renewables on the energy sector is higher costs to consumers as well as more CO2 emissions than are necessary for maintaining the electricity grid.
One outcome of this micro-managed approach is that commercial and public sector energy users are, paradoxically, charged under the Climate Change Levy for their use of electricity generated by nuclear power stations (nuclear plants emit no CO2 after construction). The CCL is designed to encourage greater use of renewable energy sources even though wind-power can result in higher CO2 emissions than efficient gas turbines. [pp. 6-7]
The report concludes:
[Wind-power] is expensive and yet it is not effective in cutting CO2 emissions. If it were not for the renewables targets set by the Renewables Directive, wind-power would not even be entertained as a cost-effective way of generating electricity or cutting emissions. The renewables targets should be renegotiated with the EU. [p. 30]
For more information contact:
Ruth Lea, Director of the Manufacturing Renewal Project, 0207 799 6677
Civitas on 0207 799 6677
Notes
i. Ruth Lea is Director of the Manufacturing Renewal Project at Civitas and an economic adviser to the Arbuthnot Banking Group.
ii. Electricity Costs: The folly of wind-power is available to download here.
iii. Civitas is an independent social policy think tank. It has no links to any political party and its research programme receives no state funding.
Download original document: “Electricity costs: The folly of wind-power”
