Around 250 onshore wind projects already in development are likely to be cancelled because the Government is ending subsidies which would aid their completion, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has announced.
The cancellation of subsidies for onshore wind offered under the Renewables Obligation (RO) is likely to mean that 2,500 turbines which were due to be built are scrapped, Ms Rudd said.
She said consumer bills will not rise and insisted the move would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds in subsidies that would otherwise have been paid out to energy projects.
Acting on a Tory manifesto commitment to scrap subsidies for onshore wind, the Government is closing the RO to new projects from April next year.
Ms Rudd said a grace period was put in place, allowing projects which had planning consent, a grid connection and land rights by June 18 to continue to be supported under the RO.
But the 250 projects delivering 2,500 turbines do not meet this criteria and are now “unlikely to be built”, she said.
The Energy Secretary told the Commons: “By closing the RO to onshore wind early, we are ensuring that we meet our renewable electricity objectives, while managing the impact on consumer bills and ensuring that other renewables technologies continue to develop and reduce their costs.
“Consumer bills will not rise because of this change.
“Indeed, those onshore wind projects unlikely now to go ahead would have cost hundreds of millions of pounds.
“I believe this draws the line in the right place.”
Ms Rudd insisted the plans would still allow the Government to meet its 2020 targets on renewable energy, with onshore wind around 10% of the country’s electricity.
But she said Britain was “reaching the limits of what is affordable, and what the public is prepared to accept.”
The Energy Secretary told MPs: “Clean energy doesn’t begin and end with onshore wind.
“Onshore wind is an important part of our current and future low carbon energy mix.
“But we are reaching the limits of what is affordable and what the public is prepared to accept.
“We are committed to meeting our decarbonisation objectives, the changes I have outlined to Parliament will not change this.”
Shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint accused Ms Rudd of causing “confusion and concern” over the policy and said she had been forced to come to the chamber to clarify the situation.
She also claimed Ms Rudd was acting to appease “many of her backbenchers”, including one making money out of a solar farm.
Ms Flint asked whether – as the changes to the rules will require primary legislation – those projects that meet the criteria at the point Royal Assent is given could be allowed to go ahead.
She added: “Despite the Prime Minister’s warm words on tackling climate change in this most important year of global negotiations, this Parliament has hardly begun but already the cheapest form of renewable energy is under attack and other renewable investors are worried that they are next.
“I want our country to go forwards not backwards. This debate is not about hot air, it is about jobs, manufacturing and investment opportunities at risk across the sector.
“You need to convince us you understand what’s at stake in your answers today.”
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