“Not only are wind farms an unreliable source of power, but it has been revealed that generous licence deals will pay out even if they fail to deliver.”
“Now opponents of wind energy have another stick with which to go tilting at windmills. The Public Accounts Committee, chaired by the increasingly redoubtable Margaret Hodge, has produced a report slamming the “generous” licence deals, worth about £17 billion, that have been done with just two engineering companies, Macquarie and Transmission Capital Partners, to provide the necessary infrastructure to connect wind-derived electricity to the grid. Under the 20-year deal, agreed under the last Labour administration but rubber-stamped by current Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) ministers, energy firms are paid even if they fail to deliver energy to households.” [Telegraph]
Hardly news – the developers are paid on the installed capacity not on output. Indeed when demand is low and the wind speed high, wind farms are paid to shut down in order to protect the grid from catastrophic failure.
Yes, indeed, the funny people are running the farm!
No big surprise England tumbling into recession. A brain-dead energy policy helps.
Here’s a hint: a Department of Energy and Climate Change is bound to make very bad calls.
When the US Robber Barons were getting right-of-way across the prairies, at least they were preparing for a useful service. The wind robber barons aren’t even doing that.