The government of United Kingdom is set to cancel about 250 onshore wind farms following the decision to revoke subsidies a year earlier than previously expected.
Beginning next April, onshore wind farms will be excluded from the subsidy scheme, according to an announcement made recently.
Closure of the projects would mean that 2,500 fewer turbines will be installed across the UK, energy secretary Amber Rudd has stated.
The energy secretary has also assured that consumers will not have to pay more for electricity as a result of the move. It won’t cause transfer of burden of fines on account of buy-out fines imposed on suppliers not meeting Renewables Obligation target.
Rudd said the government’s decarbonization targets would still be met as “clean energy doesn’t begin and end with onshore wind”.
In 2014, UK generated 18,000 gigawatt hours of electricity from onshore turbines. It was adequate to power 5.5 million homes, that is, the equivalent of 5.6 percent of the total electricity needs of UK.
Rudd said after announcing plans to retract the subsidy that although onshore wind was an “important” part of UK’s energy mix, it was “reaching the limits of what was affordable and what the public was prepared to accept”.
Ajith Kumar S