Blown off course: can UK wind get back on track?

The wind has not been blowing in a favourable direction for the UK’s renewable energy plans of late – and none seem to be getting a worse battering than wind itself.

No sooner had Shell announced last month that it was pulling the plug on its renewable energy investments, saying they were uneconomical, then it emerged soaring costs had forced Centrica, the owner of British Gas, to postpone building its £750 million offshore wind turbine farm off the coast of Lincolnshire, near Skegness. And while E.ON and BT review their plans, the world’s biggest investor in wind power, Spain’s Iberdrola has just admitted that investment in the UK will fall by 40 per cent this year.

All of this can only be described as a huge setback for the Government, which is relying on wind power over the next decade to help the UK achieve tough green energy targets and only six months ago was celebrating the country’s move into number one position in world offshore wind.

The UK Government is facing an increasingly insurmountable task of having to produce 15 per cent of the country’s energy from renewables by 2020 – and with only nine months to go it has barely even got half way to its target of meeting 10 per cent of its electricity needs through renewable energy by 2010.

It is perhaps not surprising then that Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband has recently said  the Government has got to get tougher on facing down local opposition to wind farms.

The Government and the wind industry wants to see the introduction of new planning laws to make it easier to get wind farms up and running.

According to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), there are hundreds of different projects held up in the planning process. The average length of time for permission to be granted for wind farms is 15 to 20 months in England and longer in Scotland and Wales, where most of the developments are.   

At the same time, the cost of building offshore wind farms has more than doubled over the last five years.

Nevertheless, UK wind projects are progressing. Only yesterday (Wednesday April 1), Denmark’s Dong Energy announced that the first turbine at the company’s Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm project in the Thames Estuary had been installed.

On the same day, Norway’s StatoilHydro and Norwegian power utility Statkraft said they were joining forces to develop the 315 megawatt Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Norfolk. The wind farm, which will consist of 88 turbines, is expected to start production in 2011.  

Both Dong and StatoilHydro, along with three other major energy companies, are currently working with the Carbon Trust on a new £30 million initiative to help tackle the rising costs of offshore projects.

Furthermore, the Government is hoping that its new incentive through its Renewable Obligation scheme that came in on April 1 and gives offshore wind 50 per cent extra financial support, through the Government’s Renewable Obligation (RO) scheme, will encourage the development of renewable technologies.

Back on land, in a bid to overcome aviation objections – a major source of wind energy projects being held up in the planning process – the BWEA announced on Wednesday that it was launching a £3.2 million industry fund to invest in advanced technologies designed to solve issues such as wind turbine interference with radar. The BWEA claims that currently 4700 megawatts worth of wind energy projects are held up in the planning system because of military and civil aviation concerns over issues such as interference with radar.

“The Aviation Fund shows the wind industry’s commitment to resolve aviation objections as a barrier to further wind energy deployment,” said BWEA chief executive Maria McCaffery.

The Government announced further funding for renewables this week, when on Monday Energy and Climate Change Minister Mike O’Brien committed up to £10 million to develop the next generation of offshore wind technology.

Announcing the measure, O'Brien reiterated the Government’s determination to do all it could to meet its renewable energy targets by 2020. “This week’s ramping up of financial backing in favour of technologies such as offshore wind is evidence of our determination to create the right investment environment for renewables,” he said.

It remains to be seen, though,  if any of this will be enough to get wind back on track in time for it to meet its increasingly challenging targets on renewables.

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