Memorandum by the Campaign to Protect
Rural England, Durham
1. In setting its 2010 target, the Government
stated that the cost of renewable energy should be acceptable
to consumers.
2. 2001, the Department estimated that by
2010 the Renewables Obligation would have increased electricity
prices by an average of 5.7% across all electricity consumers.
This price increase will cost the typical domestic
consumer about £10 to £12 per annum (at 2002 prices).
Wind generated electricity is subsidised by
the Renewables Obligation (RO) plus its market increment plus
the Climate Change Levy exemption (CCLe). I read at the time that
this amounts to nearly twice the value of conventional generation
and more than 25 times that on coal-fired generation per MWh.
Gas and nuclear generation not subsidised at all.
3. 2003, the DTI's Energy White Paper said:
"We have ... introduced a Renewables Obligation
for England and Wales in April 2002... The cost is met through
higher prices to consumers... By 2010, it is estimated that this
support and Climate Change Levy exemption will be worth around
£1 billion a year to the UK renewables industry".
4. 2005, The House of Commons Committee
of Public Accounts (CPA) reported that:
"The Renewables Obligation is currently
at least four times more expensive than the other means of reducing
carbon dioxide currently used in the United Kingdom..." and
as noted in the Introduction d (i): "By 2010, the cost of
the Renewables Obligation, which does not appear on electricity
bills and is not explained to consumers, is expected to reach
£1 billion per annum".
5. Additionally, the CPA drew attention
to the lack of democracy in the RO arrangement:
"the Department [DTI] has not consulted
consumers, or their representative groups, about their willingness
to contribute to the cost of renewable energy".
Resurrecting HOC Committee of Public Accounts
report is essential.
6. 2007 UCTE study Integration of Wind Power
into European Electricity Grids
http://www.ucte.org/_library/otherreports/2007-01-15-Final-report-EWIS-phase-I-approved.pdf
Abstract "The variable contributions from wind power must
be balanced almost completely with other back-up generation capacity
located elsewhere. This adds to the requirements for grid reinforcements".
7. 2008 June, E.ON has launched its new
energy manifesto, warning that if the UK is to meet its target
of generating 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020,
it will still need to develop a new generation of fossil fuel-fired
power plants. The company said the UK would require 50GW of renewable
energy to meet the EU target, but that would require up to 45GW
of backup capacity from coal and gas-fired plants that could be
used to ensure energy supply when renewable energy supplies are
not available.
8. Benefits of wind power in line with the
Energy White Paper and emissions saved is a material planning
consideration so the load or capacity factor needs to be about
30% as the predicted if emissions saved and electricity generated
are to be as claimed.
9. HL Paper126 at 3.1
Doubt was cast on this UK load factor of 30%
by Hugh Sharman an independent energy consultant working in Denmark.
He noted Danish turbines have operated at a load factor of only
21%. If this was to be the case in the UK not only would half
as many turbines again be needed to deliver the same target output
but also potential investors would face dramatic reductions in
the income derived from wind farms.
10. Advertising Standards Agency ASA found
that BWEA member company npower had breached its rules by using
a figure of 860 g/kWh for CO2 displacement* for its proposed new
Batsworthy Cross wind farm.
"The 860 figure is still in use on the BWEA
website yet in October 2007 they were said to be looking with
ASA at a revised figure".
11. BERR's calculation in the Fullabrook
Down press release is 0.36 not 0.86 and Load Factors appear to
be averaging less than 30% Thus it appears we need about 3 times
the number of turbines BWEA has said we need for a given saving.
Where will they go?
12. 2007 May, The Energy White Paper, Meeting
the Challenge, sets out the Government's energy strategy to address
the long term energy challenges we face and deliver our four energy
policy goals:
— to put ourselves on a path to cutting
CO2 emissions by some 60% by about 2050, with real progress by
2020;
— to maintain the reliability of energy
supplies;
— to promote competitive markets in
the UK and beyond; and
— to ensure that every home is adequately
and affordably heated.
Policy goal 4 is not being met. Policy 2 essential
to our survival is at risk. Renewables are not just wind.
13. The NFFO system drove developers to
the windiest sites where the electricity would be cheapest but
unfortunately coincided with our most valued landscapes. The Renewable
Obligation and its associated ROCs is an excessive "consumer-led"
subsidy which has never been explained to those who pay for it.
14. The cheapest electricity is that we
don't use and the dearest that we don't have, which is why we
need a firm supply. The problem it seems is the effect wind is
having on the efficient operation of the remainder of the generating
plant and the grid. However that is an issue for the technicians.
15. Our main concern has been the weakening
of the planning system with the heads they win, tails we lose
scenario and the fashionable idea that there are no disbenefits
from wind energy Planning has become draconian The UK protocol
for wind and the BERR guidance for onshore wind seemed to just
"appear" with no prior warning The idea of the IPC seems
to make a nonsense of democracy as the people who will be most
affected are seemingly being ignored.
16. In the North East Wind Turbines are
not doing what they promised yet a letter from the Energy Minister
stated there were no problems in the North East.
The following figures show the reality:
LOAD FACTORS AS % (COMPILED BY E MANN FROM
FIGURES ON OFGEM WEBSITE)
|
Name of wind power station
| 2003 | 2004
| 2005 | 2006
| 2007 |
|
| Blyth Harbour Wall | 12
| 11.6 | 13.2
| 10.5 | 9.57
|
| Great Eppleton | 11.2
| 15 | zero
| zero | zero
|
| Kirkheaton | 25.3
| 26.8 | 23.2
| 27.6 | 25.74
|
| Tow Law | 26.2
| 31.7 | 30.8
| 28.6 | 21.64
|
| High Hedley Hope | 27.4
| 32.2 | 33.8
| 28.6 | 31.89
|
| GlaxoSmithKline | —
| — | 8.9
| 8.2 | 10.07
|
| Holmside | —
| — | 19.1
| 14.2 | 16.7
|
| Holmside nffo | —
| — | 19.8
| 16.2 | 22.03
|
| Hare Hill | —
| — | 14.6
| 16.2 | 21.94
|
| Hare Hill nffo | —
| — | 18.3
| 21.1 | 18.29
|
| *High Volts | —
| 15.7 | 18.4
| 15.5 | 21.38
|
| *High Volts nffo | —
| 30.1 | 20.1
| 6.6 | 21.74
|
| Blyth offshore WTG 1 | 16.2
| 26.5 | 8.8
| 2.1 | zero
|
| Blyth offshore WTG 2 (LF zero 2002) | zero
| zero | zero
| zero | zero
|
|
Elizabeth Mann
12 June 2008
|
| 
