{"id":341396,"date":"2024-09-03T08:24:46","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T06:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=341396"},"modified":"2024-09-03T08:26:35","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T06:26:35","slug":"milibands-flagship-wind-farm-paid-nearly-2-5m-to-keep-turbines-switched-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=341396","title":{"rendered":"Miliband\u2019s flagship wind farm paid nearly \u00a32.5m to keep turbines switched off"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
FILE PHOTO: An off-shore wind farm is seen in the English Channel near Clacton-on-Sea in England August 29, 2014. REUTERS\/Toby Melville\/File Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

Renewable Energy Foundation figures show 62 per cent of Viking\u2019s output has had to be discarded in its first month<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed Miliband\u2019s flagship\u00a0wind farm<\/a>\u00a0has already been paid close to \u00a32.5 million to keep its turbines switched off, The Telegraph can reveal. The Telegraph<\/a> has the story.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Miliband, the Energy Secretary, praised the Viking wind farm in the Shetlands<\/a>, which officially opened on Thursday, saying \u201chundreds of thousands of homes\u201d across the country would benefit from \u201ccheap, home-grown energy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the development, the UK\u2019s largest onshore wind farm<\/a>, \u201cshows why we need more developments like this to make Britain a clean energy superpower\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SSE, which operates Viking, promised that it would be Britain\u2019s \u201cmost productive\u201d onshore wind farm. But figures from the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) show 62 per cent of its output has had to be discarded in its first month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wind farm has so far been paid \u00a32.48 million by the National Grid<\/a> to reduce its energy output, according to the REF analysis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The payouts, which will ultimately be added to consumer bills, have been made almost every day this month and have varied between \u00a3227,192 and \u00a38,408 per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Known as\u00a0constraint payments<\/a>, they are paid out by the National Grid to incentivise wind farms to reduce output when more energy is generated than can be used locally or exported to consumers elsewhere in the UK, usually as a result of higher wind speeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The value of constraint payments to wind farms has increased rapidly in recent years as more of Britain\u2019s power has come from renewable sources. Last year, wind farms<\/a> were paid over \u00a3310 million to stop producing energy, up from \u00a3174,000 in 2010, according to REF data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The charity\u2019s analysis found that \u00a31.8 billion had been spent since constraint payments began in 2010, which had ultimately been passed on to consumers\u2019 electricity bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr John Constable, the director of the REF, said: \u201cThe paradoxical outcome is that wind farm developers actually make more money when they are paid to reduce output rather than when they are selling normally on the market. The British consumer is being ripped off, and developers are laughing all the way to the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Ed Miliband\u2019s flagship\u00a0wind farm\u00a0has already been paid close to \u00a32.5 million to keep its turbines switched off, The Telegraph can reveal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":341401,"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":[691821693,691819461,691819239,691818247],"class_list":{"0":"post-341396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-ed-miliband","9":"tag-energy-bills","10":"tag-green-subsidies","11":"tag-national-grid","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/0NVLNWQSMEBIHDCWYJI6OWKGOHE.jpg?fit=3500%2C2251&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1qOo","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":334352,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=334352","url_meta":{"origin":341396,"position":0},"title":"\u201cI\u2019ll Take On the Wind Farm Nimbys From Day One\u201d Says Ed Milliband","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"24\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In an interview with the Telegraph, Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband revealed his plan to lift the ban on building new onshore wind farms if Labour wins the General Election.","rel":"","context":"In \"Ed Miliband\"","block_context":{"text":"Ed Miliband","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ed-miliband"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0721-F2-1-1920x1280-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0721-F2-1-1920x1280-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0721-F2-1-1920x1280-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0721-F2-1-1920x1280-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0721-F2-1-1920x1280-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":378010,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=378010","url_meta":{"origin":341396,"position":1},"title":"Miliband plots surge in wind farm subsidies to rescue net\u00a0zero","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/05\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"As we know, Orsted cancelled their massive Hornsea 4 offshore wind farm the other day. 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