On the 12th of June the House of Commons Energy & Climate Change Committee launched an inquiry into the economics of wind power.
We worked with Colin Gibson, one of our advisors, and a leading expert on system costs, to draft our evidence, which we are publishing today (REF Comments on the Economics of Wind Power)
Apart from calculating current and future subsidy, our main point is that the Committee must bear in mind that subsidy is not the only cost imposed on consumers by wind power, and that other matters such as grid expansion and grid management are very significant. As Mr Gibson writes in the evidence: "Even if the capital costs of wind power fall to zero, the additional system integration costs caused would result in wind electricity being 50% more expensive than that generated by CCGT or nuclear."
We are calling for comprehensive total system cost analyses for the sort of wind dominated power system that are planned by current policies. Surprisingly, such studies were not undertaken by government before the creation of the current policies.
John Constable.