UK wind turbine owners received £1.2 billion from consumer subsidies: UK think tank

An analysis of government and industry figures reveal that UK wind turbine owners received £1.2 billion from consumer subsidies, which was paid by a supplement on electricity bills last year.

Scotland's 203 onshore wind farms that receive an annual subsidy of £344 million directly employ just 2,235 people and even if the maximum number of jobs forecast are created by 2020 the effective subsidy per job would amount to £80,000-a-year.

Across the UK, the industry employed 12,000 people, for production of an effective £100,000 subsidy on each job.

According to the analysis, carried out by the Renewable Energy Foundation, a think-tank critical of the cost of wind farms, they currently added £47 to the cost of living of the average household.

According to Scottish Conservative MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament) Murdo Fraser, it had been made clear that subsidies for wind farms needed to be cut significantly, if not scrapped altogether.

According to a Scottish government spokeswoman, most Scots supported green energy, which she claimed brought £1.3 billion of investment to Scotland last year.

Scotland's renewable energy sector, already supporting 11,000 jobs with potential for many more, would be needed to help keep the lights on in England as well as Scotland, she added.

Meanwhile, government legislation empowering local communities to block onshore wind farms had prompted a mixed response from renewable energy experts.

According to commentators, the changing legislation would also see bigger incentives for local communities to host wind farms in their area.

However, according to some renewable energy experts, on-farm turbine projects would not have the capacity to offer incentives substantial enough with the new rules, leading to a dip in demand for this type of scheme.

According to others, small-scale renewable energy projects were unlikely to cause opposition in local communities and would be largely unaffected.

The new legislation would give a medium-sized wind farm around £100,000 by way of subsidies to a local community. The community would, however, have more scope to reject the project if it believed it would blight the landscape.

According to Phil McVan, managing director of Urban Wind, every wind turbine project was in danger of being branded as a wind farm.

In reality, a huge number of projects across the UK involved one or two small turbines, which had nothing to do with the major energy companies, he added.