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Jon Excell
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Are wind subsidies a price worth paying?
The anti-wind lobby gained a bizarrely-coiffed ally last week in the shape of US business tycoon Donald Trump.
Angered by plans to build an offshore wind farm near his £1bn Aberdeenshire golf resort, the entrepreneur used his appearance before the Scottish Parliament’s energy committee to attack an industry that he claimed is inefficient, unable to operate without subsidies, and responsible for killing “massive amounts of wildlife”
Stirring stuff. And despite vocal criticisms over the environmental impact of Trump’s own development, questions about the economic sustainability of the sector will always provoke debate amongst readers of The Engineer.
It’s certainly true that the UK wind energy industry is heavily subsidised - to the tune of around £1bn per year according to some reports. Although it’s also true that the extent to which other more mature areas of the energy sector are propped up is often overlooked.
What’s more, with a recent RenwableUK poll suggesting that 67 per cent of people in the UK are in favour of wind energy it seems we think it’s a price worth paying.
There’s a good argument that one of the problems faced by wind energy is the perception that it’s a mature industry. But while it’s certainly true that the core technology has been around formany years, the sector’s still in the process of finding its feet as a mass-manufacturer. And as our latest feature shows, technical breakthroughs on the production side could have a major impact. Compared to many other forms of energy generation the construction, installation and maintenance of offshore wind capacity presents some significant technical hurdles. Most existing methods rely on some element of construction at sea, a demanding and costly process in one of the most unforgiving environments.
Our feature looks at how Strabag, one of Europe’s largest construction firms, is developing an innovative process that could bring much of this work back onto dry land and potentially usher in a new era of highly efficient serial turbine assembly.
Meanwhile our interview looks at wave power, a renewables fledgling compared to wind, but an industry which, according to Ross Henderson, technology Director at UK leader Pelamis Wave power, is finally poised to make the transition from demonstration to commercialisation.
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Readers' comments (30)
JohnK | 3 May 2012 2:08 pm
What nobody seems to have mentioned is the 'green' payback period when the noxious gases produced in manufacturing the windfarms is recovered by the 'green' energy produced. Factor in the gases produced during maintenence, especially offshore, and it would be interesting to see a rational estimate of the time before the green aspect starts paying off.
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JohnK | 3 May 2012 2:08 pm
What nobody seems to have mentioned is the 'green' payback period when the noxious gases produced in manufacturing the windfarms is recovered by the 'green' energy produced. Factor in the gases produced during maintenence, especially offshore, and it would be interesting to see a rational estimate of the time before the green aspect starts paying off.
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S. Martin | 3 May 2012 2:34 pm
Something not mentioned is the claims that windfarms are a guaranteed source of income for the landed gentry and aristocratic landowners. Such claims have come about because many of them have Government backed guarantees for income for long periods. Is it just another way of the aristocracy looking after themselves with taxpayers money?
You decide.
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Ralf | 4 May 2012 4:07 pm
Anonymous said, not everyone can work in their home town.
Yes, I am aware of that. I moved quite often in the last 30 years. And I still don't own a car.
I take 1h+ with bus and train to work, with bus only it's about the same + 1 hour waiting for the bus (but 40% cheaper).
Within 2 hours I could cycle to work.
With a car I'd take 25min.
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Ralf | 4 May 2012 4:14 pm
Anonymous said, that we demand more and more energy. Why is that so?
20 years ago I bought a flat iron with 800W. That was damaged after 15 years and I had to buy a new one. But you couldn't buy anything for 800W anymore. Now these were steam irons and none under 2500W. And you still need ages ironing one shirt.
In the office we close the curtains because of the sun, and then switch on the lights because it is dark. Electricity prices are included in the rent, so who cares about the consumption?
For water I have to pay a lump sum at home instead of paying only what I use, like in other parts of the world.
So, why are we demanding ever more energy? Couldn't we use less, if we used the brain a little more?
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Paul Noonan | 4 May 2012 5:38 pm
Ralf,
I'm a keen cyclist by most measures, covering around 2500 miles a year, most of which I would otherwise drive. However this is a fraction of the average car's annual mileage. In turn cars only represent a fraction of our total energy consumption. Cycling is great for recreation and health but it only reduces my total energy consumption by a few percent at most, and I'm an enthusiast.
We have to be realistic and not over-claim the advantages of proposed solutions. When you look at the numbers nuclear power needs to be taken very seriously if you think anthropomorphic global warming is likely (on balance I do). If not then it's hard to argue against burning gas. Wind is just an ugly, expensive irrelevance for all the reasons others have already pointed out.
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Stewart Boyle | 5 May 2012 2:45 pm
If Donald Trump is vehemently against wind power my default would probably be to support them. Who is this guy? He thinks because he invests a dollop of cash on a golf resort he can dictate UK energy policy! Thank goodness that Alex Salmond has a vision for Scotland which is heavily reliant on its natural sources such as wind, waves and biomass. He also knows that there will be plenty of jobs coming if we invest wisely now. A new report by the REA showed that the UK already gets 110,000 jobs from renewable energy and are on track to increase that to over 400,000 within ten years. Tell me where all the new jobs in the UK economy are coming from right now?
Costs are coming down in all areas of renewable technology - in contrast to the fourth version of the brave new nuclear future where costs of the two EPR plant being built have already doubled. If people can just look behind the hysterical anti-wind rhetoric they would see a real success story. Yes - the Big 6 utilities have ensured that costs are higher than they should be but the trend is good and losing our nerves at a time when renewables are beginning to take off would be a big strategic mistake.
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Alan | 5 May 2012 3:21 pm
S. Martin mentioned that windfarms are a guaranteed source of income for the wealthy. He omits to mention that these wealthy people are also major shareholders in all other Industries. I therefore decide that electrical energy is not a moral choice, and shall be turning my laptop off forthwith.
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John Davies | 6 May 2012 8:23 am
1- Are wind subsidies a price worth paying?..... NO
The cash would be better spent on developing other technologies & reducing consumption.
2- The “greens” have their village idiot in the shape of Al Gore, so its only democratic that anti-wind get Don Trump, sadly it means the media will focus on the idiots……. not on the real issues.
3- The recent RenwableUK poll suggesting that 67 per cent of people in the UK are in favour of wind energy is an interesting & clever bit of deception taken up by the media (including this organ) & reported as fact,
Asking the right question always gives the answer you want (ask any barrister).
Try this – take any random group of intelligent people and ask if anyone DISAGREES with this statement-
“If you face south on midsummer day, the sun rises in the east, (your left) goes clockwise over head & sets in the west (your right), the following day it rises again in the east.”
95-100% will agree …. From which you can extrapolate that more than 90% of the UK population believe the sun rotates around the earth !!!
See, you can get Turkeys to vote for Xmas.
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Dondo | 8 May 2012 5:34 pm
I don't think a lot of people consider the consequences of "massively taxing carbon emissions". The current recession is bringing real suffering to ordinary people on a massive scale. This is the consequence of an economy with practically zero growth. Such "massive taxation" would hit all industries, and send the economy into precipitous decline, which would be disastrous for our whole society. The cause of sensible, responsible, ecology-minded engineers seeking to produce answers to energy problems is undermined by irresponsible and ill-thought-out posturing such as this.
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