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Wind farms have been paid to refrain from producing up to half of the electricity they are capable of generating, according to research that led MPs to warn that "inappropriate" decisions on wind power were "forcing excess costs onto consumers".
An analysis found that, in 2020, three large wind farms in Scotland were paid a total of £24.5 million to fail to produce about half of their potential output.
Researchers said the "constraint payments", which are ultimately added to consumer bills, were being fuelled by a high concentration of onshore wind farms in Scotland often leaving the electricity grid unable to cope on windy days.
The Renewable Energy Foundation, a charity that publishes energy data, said the problem would continue until "until there is more than sufficient interconnection between Scotland and the centres of demand in England". The analysis comes ahead of an expected spike in electricity bills.
Craig Mackinlay, who leads the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of Conservative MPs, said the constraint payments were an example of unnecessary costs being charged to consumers.
A government spokesman insisted the payments were "not a viable income stream for onshore wind developers", but a new analysis by REF found some individual wind farms were agreeing to not produce up to half of their potential output in order to avoid overwhelming the grid.
Excess costs ‘forced onto consumers’
In one case, £7.7 million in "constraint payments" handed to the operator of a 23-turbine scheme in Scotland in 2020 led to the wind farm deliberately failing to produce 51 per cent of its potential output. In another, SSE, the operator of the 33-turbine Strathy North wind farm in the Highlands, was paid £5.9 million to avoid producing 48 per cent of its capacity.
Last year, which saw particularly low wind speeds, the 59-turbine Dorenell wind farm in Moray, owned by EDF Renewables, was paid £1.5 million to avoid producing a total of 179 gigawatt hours – 35 per cent of its potential output.
Dr Lee Moroney, REF's principle analyst, said: "When wind farms have been so poorly sited that they are discarding up to 50 per cent of their annual output, the public has every right to ask how on Earth these projects came to get planning permission."
Mr Mackinlay said turbines appeared to be constructed "in inappropriate locations, forcing excess costs onto consumers and harming our precious natural heritage in the process".
More renewables ‘will protect customers’
A government spokesman said: "Gas is expensive and wind power is cheap, so we need more renewables to protect consumers. Constraint payments remain the most efficient option for National Grid to keep Britain's lights on, and are only used when there is excess supply."
A spokesman for EDF Renewables said it had to respond to National Grid's constraint requests "in order to manage the system and keep the lights on".
https://www.lse.co.uk/ShareChat.asp?ShareTicker=CEY&share=Centamin-PL
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2022/02/21/wind-farms-were-paid-not-to-generate-half-their-potential-electricity/
Fraudsters are exploiting the cost of living crisis by sending text scams that prey on households facing soaring energy bills, banks have warned.
UK Finance, the banking trade body, urged people to be vigilant after noticing a rise in the number of “smishing”, or SMS phishing, which are scams that impersonate energy companies. Recipients are told that their energy supply has switched to a new provider and that they should set up a new direct debit.
It comes as 27 energy companies have gone bust since August on the back of soaring wholesale gas prices, meaning millions of households have been transferred to new providers. Household energy bills will rise by almost £700 this year after Ofgem, the energy regulator, said earlier this month that it would lift the price cap by a record 55 per cent to £1,971.
'Ofgem would never sell you energy'
Liz Truss has once again taken a trip by private jet – this time to a destination accessible within two hours by direct train.
As social media users were quick to point out, flying by private jet for the meeting was not strictly necessary considering a direct train service runs between London and Brussels.
A Eurostar journey typically produces more than 90 per less CO2 than an equivalent flight.
The Independent has contacted the Foreign Office for comment.
Ms Truss hit headlines last month for flying by private jet to Australia.
A Eurostar journey typically produces more than 90 per less CO2 than an equivalent flight.
The Independent has contacted the Foreign Office for comment.
Instead of travelling from London to Sydney on one of the daily Qantas departures, Ms Truss flew the 22,000 miles to, from and within Australia aboard the private government Airbus A321.
The aircraft type holds 235 passengers on easyJet flights, but the government’s version is kitted out with a VIP interior – including lie-flat beds.
The mission to Australia and back burnt an estimated 150 tonnes of fuel and generated nearly 500 tonnes of CO2.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/liz-truss-slammed-taking-private-141309132.html
She's the Foreign Secretary and needs access to the outside world through official channels at all times.
That isn't going to be possible on commercial transport with the encrypted comms they use. Such a non story, it's embarrassing it is a story and feels a bit sexist as was never an issue when we had male Foreign Ministers.
Anyways gold looking good and still so undervalued. GLA.
Its no use trying to play the sexist get out of jail free card, the article isn't sexist the same would apply to any gender when considering the so far ineffectual and shambolic approach demonstrated towards foreign affairs by our present cabinet, the two hours travel would make no difference to defusing the Ukraine tensions, it would however be most beneficial to reducing carbon climate emissions.
Why not conduct the meetings by video, Skype or zoom, effective ,far less costly and faster!
Unfortunately Truss is a far from a competent Foreign Secretary,her diplomatic skills are around the same level as that of the rest of the cabinet, seriously lacking, or not apparent at all!
Truss is regarded as a joke by other countries and she is as ineffectual as the sanctions that she is preparing against Russia will prove to be.
When the US (Trump) decided to abandon the mess it had created in Afghanistan by pulling the rug out from under the feet of its allies and the Afgan people that sent a very clear message out to Putin that he could do what he liked because he would only face empty threats and ineffectual sanctions.
Putin is behaving just how Hitler did prier to the WW2 when took Poland first and then when he realised that he faced no serious effective resistance moved on the rest of Europe & the world.
Sorry Mr Sergei Lavrov about the background noise, I'm on a commercial flight with screaming babies as mrtibbles on lse said so. I'm also connected to the regular WiFi so it isn't encrypted so don't say anything either.
No Foreign Minister in the G20 gets commercial flights, she isn't a local city council leader.
The UK has sent thousands of anti armour NLAW missiles to support Ukraine, which is much more than the rest of Western Europe combined. Ukraine requested 100,000 helmets from Germany as they wouldn't send lethal aid, they sent only 5,000.
Best not to send any lethal aid, the Ukraine semi professional reservist's will be slaughtered for no good reason, their country blown too pieces and it will give Putin the excuse imprison Ukrainians and to occupy Ukraine permanently.
Johnson is an idiot, a complete waste of money and shows how much he lacks in international diplomacy.
Instead of committing £80 million of UK taxpayers money on military hardware,Johnson would have achieved far more by committing £80 million to offer Ukrainian people permanent UK sanctuary and jobs in the UK, most Ukrainians are hard working and many are trained in the skills we need at present in the UK, especially post Brexit and the pandemic ,also this may well have encouraged the rest of Europe to do the same.
Putin desperately wants the Ukrainians to put up military resistance and then he will have the excuse to annihilate them and take their country for good, that in turn will lead to further atrocities and then later that may well lead to ethnic cleansing, just as it did in Bosnia and every where else after the WW2 carve up of the map by Stalin.
The other alternative is an escalation into a full scale war and then there won't be much point in worry about the POG, the markets because our world may well be ruined.
Our NHS is incapable of delivering its core services as it should during the pandemic, imagine how well it would cope with another European, possible even world war?
Putin is old enough not to care and mad enough to push the button ,and then it wont matter how many covid jabs anyone has had!