Conservative and UKIP pledges to stop further onshore wind farms being built has come under fire from the renewables industry, after a recent study revealed that the wind farm sector added over £900 million to the economy last year.
The sector produced £906 million in gross value added revenue to the UK economy in 2014, with a total of £7 in every £10 invested staying in the UK.
The report by BiGGAR Economics for industry body RenewableUK also found that over a quarter (27%) of the economic benefits were invested into the surrounding area of the wind farm, as well as nearly half (48%) stayed in the region the initiative was located.
RenewableUK’s chief executive Maria McCaffery said the benefits to the UK of British onshore wind energy were “clear to see”.
She said: “Onshore wind powers local economies, bringing £199 million of investment into the local communities that host wind farms and creating jobs across the supply chain.
“The industry is helping to propel Britain to a brighter, cleaner and more secure future – onshore wind is already the lowest cost of all low carbon options and is set to become the least cost form of all electricity within the next five years.
Ms McCaffery feels that Tory and UKIP policies are “misguided”, putting the industry under threat by “stifling their development”.
The Tories plan to end new public subsidies for onshore wind farms would change the law, meaning that local people have the final say on them, as they “often fail to win public support and are unable by themselves to provide the firm capacity that a stable energy system requires”.
UKIP echoes the Tory’s policy, saying in its manifesto that the technology was “hopelessly inefficient” and had “blighted landscapes and put money into the pockets of wealthy landowners and investors, while pushing up bills for the rest of us”.
Mrs McCaffery disagrees, arguing that the parties are “blatantly disregarding rational economic evidence and consistently high levels of public support.”
At a recent Bournemouth East hustings, the controversial Navitus Bay wind farm project arose in the discussion. However it is important to note Navitus Bay is proposed as an offshore wind farm, separate from the findings from RenewableUK.
The project will generate enough renewable energy to power up to 700,000 homes each year, and has the potential to create a minimum of 1,700 local jobs during the four year construction phase and 140 local permanent jobs annually for the 25 year operational life of the project.
Conservative candidate, Tobias Ellwood, said that due to local tourism, Bournemouth was a wrong place for a wind farm, whereas Labour’s David Stokes strongly supported the project, saying there’s been a lot of propaganda against it.
The Green Party’s Bournemouth West candidate, Elizabeth McManus, believes that the Navitus Bay project is incredibly important to both the local environment and economy.
“I disagree that Navitus Bay would have a negative effect on tourism. We can see that in other coastal towns with a wind farm, such as Margate, that it hasn’t had a negative effect.”
She also added: “In this day and age when everyone knows we have to stay away from fossil fuels, I think it would make us, as in Bournemouth, a town that is seen as a forerunner in renewable energy.
Miss McManus also disagrees that the project does not have public support: “With any town issue, it is always the people that disagree that have the loudest voices.
“This issue comes up a lot in hustings that I attend, as well as in emails from the public concerned about the future of fossil fuels and renewable energy, and they want us all to move forward to a greener future.”
If elected, Miss McManus says that she would publicly support the Navitus project, by getting together focus groups and ensuring the public are fully aware of the facts.
“Nativus is a small contribution into what we need to do to get more renewable energy into Bournemouth,” she said.
The project is said to reduce the town’s carbon footprint by 50 percent, but Miss McManus says we should not stop there.
“The Green Party aim to reduce greenhouse gases by 90 percent by 2030, so we cannot just stop at Navitus.”
Dr David Hill says
You wont like this but, Wind Energy Generation: The $500 Billion Global Fraud – The British People and those across the world are Being Totally Conned and Absolutely Misled by our Politicians with an energy policy that is based upon predominantly, hot-air. For Wind Turbines are sheer economic madness in the long-term – http://worldinnovationfoundation.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/wind-energy-generation-british-people.html