Ed Miliband’s ‘obsession’ with renewable energy is leaving consumers with record high bills to keep wind farms switched off, critics warned last night.
Wasted wind power cost consumers almost £400million in direct costs last year – equal to £13 per household – though the true figure is likely to be much higher, figures revealed.
The data, published by the Renewable Energy Foundation, showed the impact of ‘constraint payments’ – subsidies to compensate wind farm operators for curtailing their generation.
According to the REF, wind farms were paid more than £393million in direct costs to turn off their turbines last year and discard 8.3TWh of wind energy.
In 2023, 4.3 TWh of wind-generated electricity was discarded at a direct cost of £310 million, the organisation said.
Constraint payments are made when the grid reaches capacity, and generators are asked to reduce their output to maintain system stability.
The REF said: ‘The bulk of the additional volume and cost of constraints is due to the ever-increasing number of Scottish wind farms being sited remote from areas of demand: more than 98per cent of the total constrained volume arises from Scottish wind farms.
‘In particular, the offshore wind farm, Seagreen, whose majority owner is SSE, was alone responsible for 40per cent of the total volume of constraints..’
Ed Miliband is facing criticism for his ‘obsession’ with renewable energy as bills continue to rise
According to the REF, wind farms were paid more than £393million in direct costs to turn off their turbines last year (file image)
Mr Miliband is leading a drive for more wind power, as part of his bid to reach 95per cent clean energy in the UK by 2030.
But Dr John Constable, director of the REF, told the Telegraph: ‘We are recklessly adding more wind capacity to a system which cannot cope with what it already has. This is resulting in extremely high costs to consumers.’
And shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said: ‘As we’ve been saying, if you ramp up renewables before sorting out the grid then consumers will have to pay out billions of pounds in constraint payments.
‘Ed Miliband promised to cut bills but his obsession with wind and solar means we are not building the stable baseload – gas and nuclear power – that we need for cheap energy. It’s ideology over consumer interest.’
Tory peer Lord Frost, a former cabinet minister, said it was ‘inevitable the costs will continue to increase further’ with more wind farms.
Wasted wind power cost consumers almost £400million in direct costs last year – equal to £13 per household (file image)
‘All this underlines why Ed Miliband’s ruinous wind farm-building programme, far from being the solution to our energy supply difficulties, will actually make our problems worse.’
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said: ‘The National Energy System Operator’s independent report shows we can achieve clean power by 2030 with cheaper electricity, even factoring in constraint payments, and a more secure energy system for Britain.
‘Through our Clean Power Action Plan, we will work with industry to rewire Britain, upgrade our outdated infrastructure to get renewable electricity on the grid, and minimise constraint payments.’