Turbines in Devon and Cornwall 'being set up to make most cash'
Large wind turbines in the Westcountry are being down-rated to run with less powerful generators to cash in on government subsidies, a scientist campaigning against wind farms claims.
The poorly-designed system of incentives designed by the Government is encouraging developers to produce less electricity than the equipment is capable of, yet make more than 50% more profit, according to North Devon energy consultant Dr Phil Bratby.
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The practice, which is confined to single turbines rather than large plants, could be littering the region with giant turbines designed to meet financial rather than renewable energy targets.
Retired physicist Dr Bratby, who lives near Knowstone, near the proposed site of the nine-turbine Batsworthy Cross wind farm, has given evidence about the inefficiency of turbines at six public inquiries. He says some developers are more interested in making money than harnessing renewable energy.
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"The government has weighted the subsidy levels so small landowners and farmers get the best deal," he added.
"Because of how the subsidies are ranked, developers have realised generating less energy is more profitable for them."
The Government's Feed-in-Tarrif (FiT) scheme for wind power is divided into six bands, ranging from 21 pence per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) for installed capacity of less than 1.5kW down to 4.48p/kWh for large projects of above 1.5 megawatts (MW).
The owner of a wind turbine gets the generation tariff for each kWh of electricity produced plus the export tariff of 4.5p for each kWh not used and exported to the grid.
One of the more common practices is said to be designing an 800kW system then down-rating it to 500kW.
The larger 800kW turbine would net 14ppkWh while a 500kW turbine exporting all the electricity gets 22p/kWh, an increase of 57%.
The claims were denied by Marlies Koutstaal, from turbine development company Infinergy.
She said it would be difficult for this to happen because the energy industry was regulated by the gas and electricity watchdog Ofgem.
She said: "The turbines we have must be regulated by Ofgem. We also look at each site to see what sort of turbine would be suitable.
"We look at the land and see what dimensions would be best, based on information we have at that particular moment.
North Devon MP Nick Harvey, said he will be writing to the planning minister and the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Mr Harvey said the problem was "bigger than he first thought".
Comments
by letigre
Tuesday, January 08 2013, 8:09PM
“Shhhh you guys are going to let the cat out of the bag.
Turbines – an ecological and economical disaster. A game I'm playing at the moment is watching the applications go in to sites next to people who have previously written in letters supporting other wind turbines. Wind turbine karma, careful what you wish for as they are getting bigger.
We import plenty of stuff that we can't hope to generate or produce here, why should electricity be any different.
Great article in the spectator - a must read.
I'm all for roof mounted/domestic ground source renewables but when is the penny going to drop, this industry wont stop until every square inch of our beloved county is littered with turbines.
Next you'll be saying they're quiet too.”
by flobberdob1
Monday, January 07 2013, 8:18PM
“What ever happens in the UK always seems to end up as a money making racket.”
by Vindpust
Sunday, January 06 2013, 2:13PM
“This always happens when you distort a market with subsidies. Precisely the same thing happened with hydro: when ROCs were introduced for small hydro operators closed large hydro schemes and converted them into smaller, less productive schemes which met the subsidy criteria. Overall hydro output actually went down!
Another example of the lunacy is 'curtailment' payments to large wind operators. We are already seeing millions paid to foreign-owned wind operators to shut off production because too much wind output in Scotland is destabilising the grid and threatening system frequency. See the figures on REF's website: http://tinyurl.com/aqznw6x
Because governments have made such a mess of the electricity generation system by renewables subsidies (Ofgem admit there is a 50% chance of power cuts if we get a hard winter in 2015), they are again trying to finesse the market with 'contracts for difference' in the hope of persuading energy companies to build some reliable plant to supply base load power.
Because of all this, we can look forward to escalating electricity bills and many millions more in fuel poverty.”
by Jude011
Saturday, January 05 2013, 8:21PM
“The "denial" from the energy company is actually nothing of the sort if you read the quote in this article.
The fact that the nuclear industry is also subsidised has nothing to do with the issue in this article.
Are any of the energy companies suing Dr Bratby for the very public statements he has made? I suspect not .....”
by kegs23
Saturday, January 05 2013, 5:34PM
“What is interesting is that in the paper this story had the 'expert' going on about 'cowboys' who were conveniently unnamed - sounds more like a conspiracy theory from some mad US website - and as for subsidies by far the biggest subsidies go to the nuclear industry - last figure for decommissioning and cleaning up nuclear plants was £75 billion (yes - billion) and who do you think is going to pay that - yes, you and me. Ever been had?”
by Brizz_Tony
Saturday, January 05 2013, 5:28PM
“I thought the purpose all wind turbines was to siphon off as much money from the taxpayer in subsidies, and the consumer in higher prices, as possible, before the government realises it has been taken for a fool by greedy foreign countries. The small and erratic amount of electricity they occasionally produce is an annoying by-product.”
by Brizz_Tony
Saturday, January 05 2013, 5:20PM
“I thought all wind turbines are built to siphon huge amounts of cash from the poor old taxpayer, and the hard-pressed consumer. The small amount of electricity they occasionally produce is just a by-product - the subsidy is what counts to these foreign companies.”
by 2TheBeehive
Saturday, January 05 2013, 2:53PM
“For your perusal
Wind farms vs wildlife » The Spectator
http://tinyurl.com/arjxb97”
by 2TheBeehive
Saturday, January 05 2013, 1:53PM
“What an interesting article. Some people obviously think that we should have "STUPID" written on our foreheads. I think that this big scam is now coming to the forefront, as more and more people realise the significance of it. The only people to gain from this are the suppliers of these rather ugly pseudo windmills and the developers.
It is interesting to see that red arrows have been placed on all of these comments, one supposes from people who are content to see the countryside littered with rubbish. They obviously aren't from anybody who suffers from an upsurge of intelligence as they have not added any reasons as to why they disagree with these comments.”
by Stork
Saturday, January 05 2013, 1:14PM
“Windfarms. It's all about making money, it always has been.
If the windfarm developers were really concerned about saving the planet. They would be building their windfarms where the electricity is really needed, London and the Southeast. What's wrong with building windfarms alongside the M25 ? Too much rent to pay to the landowners, thus reducing annual profits ?”