Wind: The real cost.

£250BN: THE REAL COST OF WIND POWER Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:36:15 The-real-cost-of-wind-power Sunday Express November 15,2009 £250BN:

THE REAL COST OF WIND POWER A report has exposed the true costs of wind generated electricity By Eugene Henderson THE Government's renewable energy strategy is in tatters after a report exposing the true costs of generating electricity by wind power.

An internal document from the National Grid, seen by the Sunday Express, says wind turbine energy will at times cost over 3,000 per cent more than conventional power. (that's 30 TIMES1 Industry experts say over-reliance on wind power could mean fuel poverty for consumers, as older power plants reach the end of their working lives while Britain's new generation of nuclear stations is still a long way off completion. Some experts claim the cost of upgrading the nation's electricity grid so it is possible to use all the renewable energy could be £250billion or 10 times the Government's estimates.

The revelations will make uncomfortable reading for Gordon Brown and his team, who have pinned much of their hopes of meeting carbon emission targets on wind power.

Professor Ian Fells, Emeritus Professor of Energy Conversion at Newcastle University, said: "For a long time I have thought that the wind power bubble would burst. I think that's starting to happen. "Ed Miliband tells people that to oppose wind farms is morally indefensible, but as more people start to realise the reality of what wind power actually offers, that will change."

The National Grid document, Accessing Renewable Energy, deals with the issue of "balancing the grid" to get the right amount of power from different sources across the UK so that it can maintain a supply to customers. It says wind power could cost "£300 £800 per mega watt hour (MWH) compared to conventional generation at £23 per MWH".

With generating capacity from wind "increasing rapidly", the document says the company is presented with "a range of challenges" in managing output. It talks clearly of the "need to curtail wind" because "conventional power is more economic".

A National Grid spokeswoman said the formula for working out the figures was "very complex". She said no one had actually paid such a high price for wind power and that the figures related to possible costs on the futures market. But an energy industry insider said: "These facts make for interesting, if not worrying reading.

"When they have too much power the Grid bids to shut down operators, but you can't just switch a big power station off and then hope the wind blows. By the same measure, if the wind doesn't blow you can't simply start up a power station at the flick of a switch. It will cost. "What they are saying is that wind farms will be producing power which will not be used, and it's the taxpayer who'll be footing the bill. It's a double whammy because consumers are already paying extra on their fuel bills to fund renewable energy." (If it were "not being used" what happens to it? This is nonsense - energy does not simply disappear down a drain or into thin air. If it IS generated and not used where wanted, it must and will be dissipated in other ways - normally as heat - unless it can be stored, which of course it cannot sensibly be. Surely what happens is that the wind farm simply does not generate the power in the first place? We still pay the fixed costs of course)

Under the Renewables Obligation, an incentive scheme to generate more green electricity, six per cent of everyone's electricity bill is paid to the Government to fund research. This week Lloyds and RBS said they were involved in a loans scheme offering £700million to onshore windfarm firms, which will be matched by the European Investment Bank. The power industry watchdog Ofgem says electricity prices could rise by 60 per cent by 2012, leaving many in fuel poverty.

Prof Fells said that while wind turbines provide such a small amount of power about two per cent of the country's energy needs few customers notice the extra on their bills. "Last year subsidies paid out on wind and landfill gas was £1billion. By 2020 that figure will be £30billion. That could subsidise six nuclear power stations. And they operate all the time and don't rely on what the weather is doing."

The Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "Wind is at the heart of our renewable energy strategy and it will stay there. A more realistic comparison of conventional and wind power would be £23 MWH compared to £30 or £80 MWH. "The figure of £250billion to upgrade the grid is also not a figure we recognise. It's estimated the cost to deliver our 2020 target is an additional £4.7billion with an additional £15billion needed for offshore grid connections."