Boris Johnson has given the go-ahead to onshore wind farms four years after his predecessor, David Cameron, imposed a moratorium on subsidies for land-based wind turbines.
The prime minister’s move follows lower prices of electricity produced by wind farms in recent years, making the technology significantly cheaper than other forms of low-carbon electricity such as nuclear power.
Ahead of November’s Cop26 global climate change talks in Glasgow, the government is under growing pressure to adopt a strategy to hit its target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In a plan set out to climate groups in Downing Street on Monday, onshore projects will be allowed to compete for government subsidies alongside other renewable energy technologies, such as offshore wind.
Onshore wind farms have long been unpopular with grassroots Conservatives in rural areas because of their visual effect on the landscape as well as their impact on birdlife.
Mr Cameron in effect killed off the construction of new onshore wind farms in the wake of the 2015 general election when he said he wanted to “rid” the countryside of the “unsightly” structures after pressure from many of his own MPs.
In 2016, he excluded onshore wind from the government’s system of subsidies for low-carbon electricity. The moratorium led to new onshore wind capacity falling to its lowest level in a decade in 2019.
However, Alok Sharma, business secretary, said cutting carbon emissions rapidly would mean “making the most of every technology available” including onshore wind and solar. He pledged that the government would do this in a way that did not alienate local communities.
Under the new plan, projects will be eligible to apply for a new “contracts for difference (CFDs)” auction in 2021, which means wind farms could be up and running by the mid-2020s. Campaigners cautioned that because of planning restrictions, most of the new projects were likely to be built in Scotland rather than England.
Scottish Power, for example, has drawn up a list of potential wind farm projects north of the border in anticipation that the government could loosen its resistance to onshore schemes.
The government’s system of CFDs provides a fixed price for electricity to low-carbon projects. Last autumn some offshore wind projects agreed to prices as low as £39.65 per MwH, reflecting the increased efficiencies in the industry, such as higher turbines with longer blades.
By contrast, EDF’s proposed nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset agreed a strike price with the government in 2016 at £92.50/MwH in 2012 prices -equivalent to at least £102/MwH in today’s prices.
Onshore wind has traditionally been cheaper than offshore wind, reflecting the complex challenges involved in building huge wind turbines far off the coast, often in deep waters — although the gap has been closing in recent years.
John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, said onshore wind and solar were some of the cheapest available sources of energy.
“The government now needs to engage with local communities in order to get large amounts of onshore wind and solar off the ground,” he said. “Leading by example, by tripling the UK’s wind and solar by 2030, is a prerequisite for successful UK leadership at this year’s global climate talks in Glasgow.”
This article ha been amended to clarify the strike price for EDF’s proposed nuclear power station at Hinkley Point
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