The British Wind Energy Association’s homepage claims that the Conservative Party’s proposals in its new environmental report “would end all support for onshore wind – and cripple the UK wind industry overnight”.
So it admits this at long last. Electricity from windpower is only economic with a subsidy in excess of 100 per cent, continuing into the foreseeable future.
An industry which could be “crippled” by withdrawal of subsidy probably deserves to die on economic grounds alone.
It covertly takes its subsidy from all consumers – not just green tariff subscribers. It despoils landscape by trampling local democracy. It feeds intermittent and problematic electricity to a network which requires the highest levels of technical reliability. Into a bad bargain, it saves so small an amount of CO2 emission that it is not worth having. Good riddance!
Dr John Etherington
Llanhowell, Pembrokeshire
18 September 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/09/18/windpower-cat-out-of-bag/