{"id":262510,"date":"2023-06-17T14:15:54","date_gmt":"2023-06-17T12:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262510"},"modified":"2023-06-17T14:15:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-17T12:15:57","slug":"energy-bills-to-rise-200-a-year-to-pay-for-wasted-wind-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262510","title":{"rendered":"Energy bills to rise \u00a3200 a year \u2018to pay for wasted wind\u00a0power\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  h\/t Philip Bratby<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Energy bills will rise \u00a3200 a year within a decade to pay for wasted wind power as new turbines in Scotland are paid to switch off, according to new forecasts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poor electricity grid infrastructure means energy created by turbines in Scotland cannot reach homes in England on very windy days.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year Britain wasted enough wind power for a million homes, but new turbines built over the next decade would see that figure grow fivefold by 2030, according to think tank Carbon Tracker.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0<\/em>cost to pay wind farms to switch off<\/em><\/a>\u00a0at these times and buy gas to fill in the shortfall would rise to \u00a33.5 billion a year, according to Carbon Tracker\u2019s analysis. That would add an average of \u00a3200 to annual household energy bills.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottlenecks in the planning process<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The problem has been blamed on bottlenecks in the planning process which can take up to seven years for major new electricity cable projects.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the construction of wind farms has grown steadily to help meet the Government\u2019s net zero goals.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, <\/em>wind generation in Scotland<\/em><\/a> is expected to grow four times faster by 2030 than the cables required to send the power across the border.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scotland can currently produce 10GW of electricity from its wind farms on peak days, but the grid has the capacity to transport just 6GW.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Scotland accounting for just 10 per cent of the country\u2019s electricity demand, an excess of power would be created on days with high wind and low demand if turbine owners were not paid to switch off.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Grid paid Scottish wind farms to stop generating on more than 200 occasions last year while paying gas power stations in England to increase output to compensate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe electricity grid is not fit for purpose because investments are not increasing in step with the rapid growth of wind power,\u201d said report author Lorenzo Sani.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout significant improvement in the permitting timeframes for <\/em>critical energy transmission infrastructure<\/em><\/a> \u2013 the grid can\u2019t support the Government\u2019s plans to decarbonise generation by 2035 or deliver on its vision of \u2018affordable, homegrown, clean energy\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2023\/06\/15\/energy-bills-rise-200-pound-per-year-scottish-wind-turbines\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of spending yet more billions on transmission infrastructure, I have a better idea \u2013 simply stop all further development of wind power in Scotland, and concentrate it only where there is already sufficient transmission capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if this is such a big problem already, just wait till we have the 45GW of offshore wind power promised!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Energy bills will rise \u00a3200 a year within a decade to pay for wasted wind power as new turbines in Scotland are paid to switch off, according to new forecasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":262513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820271,691818902,691819461],"class_list":{"0":"post-262510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-200-a-year","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-energy-bills","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0HZNHcPyS.png?fit=1036%2C488&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-16i2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":420666,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=420666","url_meta":{"origin":262510,"position":0},"title":"Scotland\u2019s biggest offshore wind farm wasting three quarters of energy","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/01\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Scotland's largest operational offshore wind farm, the Seagreen project (1.075 GW capacity, 114 turbines, operated by SSE Renewables and TotalEnergies), reportedly wasted around 77% of its generated electricity in 2025 due to grid constraints. 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As offshore wind comes on stream, the great energy switch off will only increase. 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Why authorise new capacity in areas where transmission lines are known to be inadequate?","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-120.png?fit=1200%2C790&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-120.png?fit=1200%2C790&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-120.png?fit=1200%2C790&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-120.png?fit=1200%2C790&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-120.png?fit=1200%2C790&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":423011,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=423011","url_meta":{"origin":262510,"position":3},"title":"Constraint Payments Soar to New\u00a0Record","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"25\/01\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The cost is actually overstated, because we would still need to pay for one lot of electricity anyway. 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