Wind farm operators are given up to £440,000 worth of ROC's per year per turbine

Electricity suppliers must have one ROC - Renewables Obligation Certificate - for about every ten units of electricity supplied. Roc's are given to wind power generators and have to be bought from them before power from conventional power stations using coal can be sold. The alternative is to pay a fine. Each ROC is worth £48 and wind farm operators are given one ROC for each unit of electricity they sell. The units of electricity are worth about £33 and the Roc's is worth about £48. The wind farm company therefore gets more than double the market price for each unit of power generated.

Consumers beware of costly wind farm spin

Britain’s last remaining wildernesses and rural England are about to be destroyed for ever – and for a very dubious set of returns. Will wind farms turn out to be a truly revolutionary source of energy for the future or an expensive folly?
Whatever the final answer, there’s no doubt about the expense. Over the past decade developers have grown rich on lavish – and, critics would say, misdirected – government subsidies. Wind farming is the new gold rush.

Read more in this Times article

Wind energy strategy will not deliver EU targets

The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee says that the UK's renewable energy targets could prove both costly and risky, and nuclear energy is the most reliable viable low-carbon alternative. Their report entitled -The Economics of Renewable Energy - acknowledges government commitments to increase renewable energy use, but is sceptical as to whether the target of 15% renewables for the UK by 2020, proposed by the European Union (EU), can be met. It also warns that an over-reliance on intermittent power generation options, such as wind energy, could prove both costly and risky in terms of security of supply. Read a one page summary of the House of Lords report here

Electricity costs to rise by 38%

Under current policies, renewables would need to grow from their current 5-6% to 30-40% to meet the 2020 targets. The higher costs associated with renewable generation, in comparison to conventional or nuclear, would raise electricity generation and transmission costs by £6.8 billion ($10.5 billion) per year, a 38% increase that would have to be met by UK consumers.

And it gets worse - we are also paying for :-

The renewables obligation is just one of the charges for dealing with climate change already being added to our energy bills. The average power and gas consumer is also paying an annual extra £31 for carbon permits, under the EU emissions trading scheme, and another £38 for the UK government’s carbon emission reductions program, which subsidises home energy efficiency programs.

Look offshore and the story gets worse

Do you remember the extra £525Million that was promised to the offshore wind farm industry in the last budget? Like everything else to do with wind it was a smoke and mirrors exercise. There is actually no more money on offer from the Government. It was the consumer who was going to pay. The deal was that offshore wind farms will be given two Roc's for every unit of electricity produced. These Roc's of course cost the Government nothing. We end up paying for them via the higher electricity charges.

You can read the whole story in this article