Wind farms: millionaire playgrounds for Green fat cats

ENERGY policy in Great Britain has been a shambles for years. Cowardly governments have turned a blind eye to repeated warnings over prices and supply.

The Renewables Obligation is being used to generate profits for turbine owners without leading to the intended increase in wind-farmed electricity. Despite the vast subsidies available, the extra wind capacity added in 2007 was less than three-quarters of that built the year before. Wind turbines do not yet make a significant contribution to electricity production, accounting for just 0.75% of the national total. The government is committed to building more wind farms, with promises that wind energy will “make the main contribution” to the electricity produced by renewable sources. But Britain’s antediluvian planning laws seem to be getting in the way, as those who want to turn Lewis into a wind farm are discovering.

Those that succeed in building wind turbines, however, can make a killing and quickly join the ranks of the green energy fat-cats exploiting ordinary consumers – especially the most disadvantaged who pay a larger chunk of their incomes on energy than average – who are paying for the cost of the Renewables Obligation via increased energy prices. When Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, recently asked energy suppliers to explain soaring energy bills, the suppliers hit back by revealing that around 50% of the increases are directly attributable to the green agenda imposed by London and Brussels.

Some estimate the Renewables Obligation adding over £1bn a year to electricity bills, at the worst possible time for consumers already under huge pressure from soaring mortgages, higher taxes and increased inflation. Energy prices are rising by between 10% and 20%. Throw in high oil and fuel prices and you have a nasty recipe for public impoverishment. People are struggling to pay: according to Ofgem, power disconnections have more than trebled over the past two years.

Things are only going to get worse. In line with European Commission stipulations, the government is committing to increase Britain’s proportion of renewable energy to 15% in 2020. The main driver of this is the requirement that Europe must cut CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, put forward by the European Commission as part of Brussels’ measures to tackle climate change.