BRITAIN: A GONER WITH THE WIND

The dash for wind energy is a generational folly that will see the nation’s economic future sacrificed on the altar of Net Zero

Barry Norris

BRITAIN HAS BET EVERYTHING ON WIND, mostly offshore wind, to decarbonise the national electricity grid by 2035 and reach Net Zero by 2050. The commitment is to increase the current 14 GW of offshore wind production to 50 GW by 2030, enough to power around half the UK’s predicted electricity consumption. It is Britain’s only current growing source of energy generation. And yet the wind industry is in crisis. New developments are on hold and the government’s offshore auction in September failed to attract a single bid. Wind farm operators are effectively on strike unless the UK taxpayer ponies up more cash. The reason is that offshore wind is too expensive to be commercially viable, even with inflation-adjusted price guarantees which protect suppliers against intermittency and supply chain problems. Mads…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2023

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