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Are wind subsidies a price worth paying?

In response to Richard Annett: Let’s have a look at what £2bn (£ 2 x 10exp9) per year would buy you. Taking round numbers if you consider 10 nuclear power stations with a total output of 10GWe generating for 7000 hours per year that is a total of 70 x 10exp9 kw hours per year. The subsidy per kw hour for decommissioning is then 200/70 pence ~2.86 pence per kw hour. This quite a conservative figure as it does not consider the electricity generated by the already closed plants that are included in these decommissioning costs or that the service live are in excess of 40 years. What are the subsidies for wind power and other renewables? 10-20 pence per kw hour seem to be typical figures. Is wind energy really a bargin?

3 May 2012

9:46 am