Renewable Energy Foundation

REFs study of the likely impact of climate change policies on the affordability of energy concludes:

1.  Current renewable electricity policies intended to meet the EU Renewables Directive in 2020, will impose extra consumer costs of approximately £15bn per annum, which is roughly equivalent to 1% of current GDP. This annual total is comprised of approximately £8bn in subsidy, £5bn in grid integration, and a further £2bn in VAT charged on these extra costs.

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REF on Fuel Poverty

The noise most commonly associated with wind farms, and frequently complained of, is the repetitive swishing beat occurring at turbine blade rotation frequency, which is known as Amplitude Modulation (AM) of the aerodynamic turbine noise.

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AM Noise Inf Note

Following work on the high constraint payments made to Scottish wind power in April, and subsequent coverage in the press,¹ REF has continued to monitor the situation in May and June. The Department of Energy & Climate Change had described the events in early April as “unusual”,² and we were interested to determine whether this was in fact the case.

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Constraint Update

As part of its research program, REF has carried out a study of the costs and implied oncosts of the UK Renewable Electricity subsidies, the results of which indicate that the total cost of the subsidies to renewable electricity generators would be in the region of £100bn by 2030.¹

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Cost Estimates to 2030

REF has assessed the UK Feed-in-Tariff for Renewable Electricity in the light of its performance in the first year, April 2010 to March 2011

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FiT Year 1 Info Note

In the recent April Operational Forum, National Grid revealed that substantial “constraint” payments were made to a number of Scottish wind farms in the first week of April¹.  A constraint occurs when the grid system or a section of the system is unable to absorb all the electricity being generated, and some generators that are contracted to generate must be asked to stand down.

The April event occurred because the Scottish grid network could not absorb all the energy being generated, and chose to constrain wind power off the system, paying very high prices to compensate wind generators for the lost income, in some cases as high as 20 times the value of the electricity which would otherwise have been generated. In total approximately £890,000 pounds was paid over a few hours to six wind farms, these costs being ultimately destined to pass on to the consumer.

Attachments:

Wind Farm Constraint Payments REF Info Note 01 05 11