It is claimed in a new report churned out by the Centre for Policy Studies that renewables-based power generation subsidies have destroyed the UK electricity market.
Author Rupert Darwall, a former Treasury special adviser, spouts that the costs of intermittent renewables are “massively understated”.
He asserts that current UK energy policy represents the “biggest expansion of state power since the nationalisations of the 1940s and 1950s”, that it is “on course to be the most expensive domestic policy disaster in modern British history” and that, by “committing the nation to high-cost, unreliable renewable energy, its consequences will be felt for decades”.
And: “To keep the lights on, everything ends up requiring subsidies, turning what was once a profitable sector into the energy equivalent of the Common Agricultural Policy.”
In addition to their supposed higher plant-level costs, Darwall states that renewables require massive amounts of extra generating capacity to provide cover for intermittent generation when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.
Nearly half of Scotland’s energy consumption came from renewable sources last year, official figures show.
Provisional renewable electricity generation 2014 national statistics show 49.6% of gross electricity consumption came from renewable sources in Scotland last year, an increase from 44.4% in 2013.
Renewable electricity generation increased last year by 11.7% and is now estimated at 18,959 gigawatt-hours (GWh).
This is approximately enough electricity to power the equivalent of an additional 430,000 Scottish households for a year, compared to 2013.
The amount of electricity produced by projects owned by local communities has increased by more than a quarter in the last year, the Scottish Government has revealed.
Ministers have set the target of having plants producing 500 megawatts (MW) of power in communities and local ownership by 2020.
The latest figures show such schemes can generate 361MW, up from 285MW in the previous year.
The increase was revealed by energy minister Fergus Ewing ahead of the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) conference in Stirling.
Trade body Scottish Renewables has announced the appointment of its new chairman and vice-chairman.
Patricia Hawthorn, partner at law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn, has been appointed chairman of the renewables body while Gordon MacDougall, managing director, Western Europe at renewable developer RES, has been appointed vice-chairman.
Ms Hawthorn replaces Ronnie Bonnar, managing director of Repsol Nuevas Energias UK, who has chaired Scottish Renewables since 2013.
The UK public believes that wind power subsidies paid by consumers are many times higher than they actually are, according to polling for the industry.
A survey questioned 2,000 people for industry body RenewableUK about what they thought payments for wind farms added to fuel bills, and found the average estimate was £259 for a typical £1,300 dual-fuel energy bill.
But the industry said the actual cost of wind power subsidies from domestic energy bills was around £18 a year.
Future UK Government budgets for offshore wind are unlikely to support Scotland’s ambitions to develop the industry, the first minister has said.
Nicola Sturgeon has called on the government to act now to provide confidence to the sector by increasingboost budget allocations to allow offshore wind to be delivered on a far greater scale.
Sturgeon’s plea comes after the results of the first contracts for difference auction were announced last week.
The auction awarded 15-year contracts which guarantee a price for the power generated as part of the government’s plan to encourage renewable energy.
The Força Eólica do Brasil consortium have awarded Gamesa a contract to supply 42 state-of-the-art wind turbines to the three wind farms in Brazil.
Gamesa will install the G114 wind turbines with a unit capacity of two megawatts (MW) at the windfarms and will be in charge of supplying, transporting, installing and commissioning 15 wind
turbines for the Santana 1 windfarm.
This dramatic footage captured by an offshore worker in the North Sea shows waves crashing against the Borgholm Dolphin rig.
Winds as high as 113mph hit Scotland earlier this week as a storms crossed the Atlantic.
Electricity generated from renewables in Scotland has matched that produced from fossil fuels for the first time.
Both sources accounted for 32% of total electricity generated in 2013, according to figures released by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Scotland continues to be a net exporter of electricity, exporting 28% of generation compared to 26% in 2012.
EDF Energy Renewables has sold a majority stake in three of its UK onshore wind farms to CGN (China General Nuclear Power Corporation).
The company said the money from the sale will be used to make further investments in renewable projects in the UK.
It will continue to own a 20% share in the three wind farms and also continue to run, maintain and operate the sites and provide asset management services for the new owners.
Triodos Renewables has extended its crowd funding share issue until the end of January after receiving only £2million of the £5million that it aimed to raise to fund wind farms.
The Dutch bank had been due to close its share issue on 30 November but extended the deadline after only 600 investors chose to pump cash into the offer.
The lender’s renewable energy arm already owns and operates 11 projects in the UK, which together produce 53MW of power.
The UK government has granted permission for an offshore wind project which is expected to create up to 2,500 jobs.
Hornsea Project One in North Lincolnshire will be made up of three offshore wind farms with a maximum capacity of 1200MW.
Once built, it will generate enough electricity to power more than 800,000 homes.
A former Scottish political leader has been defeated in his fifth attempt to win approval for a controversial windfarm in Aberdeenshire.
Councillors have upheld the decision to throw out Lord Nicol Stephen’s plans to erect two masts near Blackhills Farm at Cushnie.
Campaigners said they hoped the verdict would convince the one-time deputy first minister to finally drop the proposals for the site.
Councillors ended hopes of a 12-turbine wind farm being erected on top of Mormond Hill yesterday after backing the local authority's planners recommendation to refuse the application.
It is the second blow to Muirden Energy in as many months after councillors on the Buchan area committee similarly rejected their plans in October.
Green Cat Renewable's director, Gavin Catto, whose company represented Muirden, was present at yesterday's meeting of the Banff and Buchan area committee. He told elected members in Banff that the project could produce more than 100 gigawatts of power annually if they gave it the go-ahead.
Businesses interested in offshore wind will have the chance to get involved in a technology innovation programme.
A seminar in Inverness will look at how companies in the Highlands and Islands can collaborate and tackle the high costs affecting the industry.
The organisers of the event are Energy North, the Carbon Trust and Scottish Development International.
GDF Suez has struck a deal with a community windfarm on the Isle of Lewis to buy all the electricity generated from it.
The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Beinn Ghrideag windfarm is the first such agreement of its kind with a community owned renewable generator.
Cable production specialist Tekmar Energy has been awarded a major contract by VBMS to supply one of its innovations to the a windfarm project in the Netherlands.
The contract award will see the company’s TekTube used on the Westermeerwind near-shore windfarm.
Highs winds over the weekend helped provide almost a quarter of the UK’s electricity supply, Industry body RenewableUK said.
A new record of 24% was set for wind power as nuclear reactors remained offline and a large gas plant was hit by a fire.
With the sunniest desert on Earth, a windswept coast and limited fossil fuel supplies, northern Chile has become the world’s top market for renewable energy.
The government of President Michelle Bachelet has approved 76 solar and wind projects since taking power March 11. Renewable energy developers are pursuing contracts to deliver electricity to mines run by by companies including Anglo American Plc (AAL) and BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP), which consume a third of the country’s power.
Brazil’s energy regulator Aneel has set the highest price for wind and solar power at an energy auction this month.
Regulators set a ceiling price and developers bid down the coast they’re willing to deliver electricity, with the lowest winning long-term contracts to sell power.
