By Paul Homewood

The analysis, based on audited financial accounts and official generation data, throws into question claims from the wind industry that wind is becoming ever more competitive.

The findings are also another major blow to the government’s Net Zero policy, which will fail without cheap and abundant renewable electricity.

GWPF deputy director, Andrew Montford, said:

“Onshore wind is 60% dearer than the figure in the Government’s plans for Net Zero, making it a nonsense of claims that it is the cheapest form of electricity generation. We are locking high costs into the economy”

The steady rise in onshore costs is thought to be due to windfarms being sited at progressively worse locations. In other words, the best sites are now all taken.

Earlier analyses have found that offshore wind remains extraordinarily expensive, with at best only a small reduction in recent years [2-4].

https://www.thegwpf.org/publications/cost-of-onshore-wind-has-been-rising-for-20-years/

Andrew Montford’s conclusion is that the levelised cost of new build onshore wind is around £80/MWh.

This is consistent with the most recent onshore wind farms commissioned via CfDs, which are attracting guaranteed prices of £90/MWh +:

No significant new onshore capacity has been added since 2019,ie unsubsidised. This implies that onshore wind farms are not viable at traditional market prices of around £50/MWh.

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January 24, 2022 at 09:15AM

Some might say the unrest has already started. The futile pursuit of policies that supposedly ‘improve’ the climate somehow, but cost energy consumers a small fortune and make the electricity grid ever more difficult to manage, is bound to end badly sooner or later.
– – –
Carbon emissions targets could be “bigger than Brexit” for the potential of causing unrest, and division in the country, an organising member of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of MPs has warned.

Serial rebel, Brexiteer and Tory backbencher Steve Baker helped establish the group of around 20 MPs who are concerned about the costs of reaching net zero, says Sky News.

And his warning comes amid an escalating cost of living crisis.

Mr Baker told Sky News: “I genuinely believe that when the full costs of net zero start hitting us, if people have never been given a choice at the ballot box, we could end up with something bigger than the poll tax, certainly bigger than Brexit, because the numbers of people hit by it and their inability to cope will be huge.

“I am sick to death of people talking to me about food and fuel poverty, and then piling costs on the poor.

“This is a fundamental moral issue.”

‘MPs know this is going to hit all voters and hit them hard’

“I’ve started three big projects of MPs on the issue of the day – one on Brexit, one on COVID, which of course affected everybody, and one on net zero.

“Of the three of them, the one that grew fastest by miles was net zero, simply because members of parliament know this is going to hit all voters and hit them hard and hit them fast and they aren’t going to like it.”

Mr Baker’s warning comes as the prime minister is fighting another significant division – battling to regain support from within his party as it responds to the ongoing “partygate” scandal.

The Net Zero Scrutiny Group, which includes former cabinet minister Esther McVey MP, recently signed an open letter demanding the government scrap green levies on energy bills and increase the amount of gas extracted from the North Sea.

But the larger, greener wing of the Conservative party sees things very differently.

Full article here.

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January 24, 2022 at 08:57AM

 London, 24 January – A new analysis from the Global Warming Policy Foundation reveals that the cost of onshore wind power has risen by 30% since the introduction of the Renewables Obligation, 20 years ago [1]. 

The analysis, based on audited financial accounts and official generation data, throws into question claims from the wind industry that wind is becoming ever more competitive.
 
The findings are also another major blow to the government’s Net Zero policy, which will fail without cheap and abundant renewable electricity. 

GWPF deputy director, Andrew Montford, said:
 
“Onshore wind is 60% dearer than the figure in the Government’s plans for Net Zero, making it a nonsense of claims that it is the cheapest form of electricity generation. We are locking high costs into the economy”

The steady rise in onshore costs is thought to be due to windfarms being sited at progressively worse locations. In other words, the best sites are now all taken.
 
Earlier analyses have found that offshore wind remains extraordinarily expensive, with at best only a small reduction in recent years [2-4].
 
Notes
 
[1] The new report is entitled “The Rising Cost of Onshore Wind” and can be downloaded here (pdf).
 
[2] Montford, A. Offshore Wind: Cost predictions and cost outcomes. Briefing 52, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, 2021.
 
[3] Aldersey-Williams J et al. Better estimates of LCOE from audited accounts – A new methodology with examples from United Kingdom offshore wind and CCGT. Energy Policy 128 (2019) 25–35.
 
[4] Hughes G. Wind Power Economics: Rhetoric and reality. Vol. I, Wind Power Costs in the United Kingdom Technical report, The Renewable Energy Foundation, 2020.

Contact

Andrew Montford
e: awmontford@gmail.com

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January 24, 2022 at 08:10AM

The Associated Press has determined from a single outlier that cross-country skiing is doomed. For the first time in 32 years, organizers of the Yellowstone Ski Festival in West Yellowstone, Mont., had to cancel November’s traditional start-of-the-ski-season event due to … Continue reading →

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January 24, 2022 at 08:10AM