Onshore wind power has the potential to cut household energy bills, benefit consumers by well over a billion pounds and create thousands of jobs, particularly in Scotland, according to a new report.
The Power of Onshore Wind report, from renewable energy consultants BVG Associates, claims that awarding contracts for five gigawatts (GW) of new onshore wind power between 2019 and 2025 could deliver a net payback to UK consumers of £1.6 billion.
The report is supported by energy firms Scottish Power Renewables, Vattenfall, Innogy and Statkraft and has been issued to coincide with the first Onshore Wind Week in the UK.
The analysis considers five new Contract for Difference (CfD) auctions held from 2019 at 18-month intervals each with a maximum capacity of 1GW.
Forecasts show that the costs of new onshore wind projects would drop below the UK Government’s forecast wholesale electricity price from 2023.
Over the five auctions it is expected that 86 per cent of the projects by capacity would be built in Scotland.
The report predicted that around 18,000 skilled jobs would be supported during the peak years of construction, with 8,500 people employed in long-term skilled jobs when all the wind farms are operating. It is anticipated that 60 per cent of the jobs would be created in Scotland.
Earlier this year the renewable sector warned that UK Government policy has been stalling the growth of onshore wind.
Lindsay McQuade, chief executive of Scottish Power Renewables, said: “Onshore wind is the cheapest form of new build electricity generation available in the UK today.”
Bruce Valpy, managing director at BVGA, added that the UK needs to build a sustainable electricity mix that plays to its strengths in terms of natural resources and a capable workforce.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel