January 8, 2014
Opinions, U.K.

The madness of windfarms gets crazier

Published on Wednesday, 08 January 2014, The Edge - Richard Northedge Takes on Corporate Finance - dofonline.co.uk

The economics of wind power get crazier. Instead of paying windfarms not to produce electricity, National Grid is considering paying business to use extra power.

Britain’s switch from cheap fossil-fuels to expensive alternatives in the name of Greenness shows many signs of insanity but the manipulation of market economics to justify the shift is reaching new levels of madness.

Wind power is only economical if it is subsidised. Ie, it is not economical. That’s why we’re compelled to use it rather than allowed to choose it.

Governments have signed up to a green agenda, however, that requires us to use renewables whether or not it makes sense. The result is madnesses such as power companies giving away light bulbs to establish their green credentials instead of adopting unwanted alternative fuels.

Even environmental rules are ripped up. Countryside on which electricity pylons would be opposed is now littered with even more obtrusive wind turbines.

Windfarms are already being paid not to produce electricity because there is enough cheaper conventional fuel. The payments reached £8m in
August 2013 alone and will be around £28m for a full year.

There are already enough windfarms, onshore and offshore, to power a quarter of Britain’s homes but the total is rising rapidly. And as more
farms are built, producing more unwanted and uneconomical power, the bill for keeping them switched off will soar.

So National Grid’s new idea is to keep those payments down by paying business to use power during off-peak periods such as night-time. Well, if anyone is to receive money for consuming electricity, how about giving the payments to those pensioners facing escalating fuel bills? They may well be happy to watch TV and do their laundry in the middle of the night if it cuts their heating bills – even in August.

Madness? Not compared with the crazy economics of wind power.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/01/08/the-madness-of-windfarms-gets-crazier/