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About the developers.
In the last few years, applications to build wind power stations here have flooded in. Many have already been built. Turbines between 80 - 100 metres (300 - 400 feet) high already disfigure our skylines. And for what?
The wind farm developers are not on a mission to save the planet. Their cover has been blown. People are starting to get wise to these new gold-diggers piling onto the wind bandwagon. They are in it to make money, and they are making a lot of it right now, under our noses, in our back yard. Without a shadow of a doubt, the industrial energy conglomerates and these opportunistic private individuals, backed by the big banks, have completely and successfully hijacked the entire green energy agenda, in order to pander to their shareholders and personal bank accounts. Much publicity is generated around the production of electricity for local markets, when in fact the electricity is fed into the grid, with no local supply capability whatsoever.
The truth is that not one conventional power station will close as a result of their legalised vandalism.
It is important that details of the financing of wind farm construction and subsequent operation is understood.
Technically there is no ‘Government subsidy’ given towards onshore wind farms. None at all. So how does it work? The funding for construction of a wind farm up to the granting of planning permission has to be arranged by the developer and generally comes from banks or other lenders. The capital cost of the turbines and their installation also comes from borrowed funds and these costs are very considerable as each turbine costs roughly £3 million to put into service. However, the risk for the developers and the lenders is small, once planning permission is obtained, and the pay back period is short thanks to the certainty of the ‘subsidy’ through the mechanism of the ‘Renewables Obligation’. It is important to understand how this works.
The government designed system (Renewables Obligation), in place until 2027, enables a wind farm operator or owner to receive a large ‘subsidy’ by being able to sell ROCs (Renewable Obligation Certificates) in addition to, and in proportion to, the electricity he produces. This effectively doubles the income he can receive for his electricity compared to a ‘conventional’ generator. The clever bit is that this income is derived from the electricity consumers and not the taxpayers as is commonly misquoted. The turbine operators are in a ‘no lose’ position as they have a captive market, the distributors are obliged to buy their output and they have a guaranteed price - and it is guaranteed to keep rising for the next 20 odd years. But the really clever bit is that it all ultimately comes from increased electricity bills, that is us, and not via any taxes paid to Government and then passed on to the operators.
Be in no doubt that electricity bills will rise sharply as a result of this system. The really unfair side to this of course is that this harsh economic pain will be felt mainly by those on lower incomes, whereas if it was tax-funded the higher tax bands would pay more. It really amounts to a stealth tax that will especially hit the poor and elderly, whilst the huge profits will disappear into the accounts of a handful of sharp businessmen, banks and rich landowners.
Case Study on one random Lammermuirs wind farm developer - the so called ‘Community Windpower Ltd.’:
A company called Community Windpower Ltd. recently (2009) officially opened a wind farm at Aikengall near Dunbar. Community Windpower’s website currently makes the following claim: “In total the 16 turbines [at Aikengall 1] will now produce a maximum of 48MW of clean electricity for the local area”.
In spring 2008 Community Windpower signed a deal with Gaz de France (a French power company) under which the entire output of Aikengall wind farm, for at least the first 10 years of the operation of Aikengall, will be purchased by Gaz de France. The UK part of Gaz de France is based in Leeds, Yorkshire, where the company is dedicated to serving business customers. In July 2009 the European Community fined Gaz de France 553 million Euros for anti-competitive behaviour in the European energy market. Does the French company Gaz de France have any customers in the area local to the Aikengall wind farm? You can guess the answer for yourself.
Gaz de France have, however, confirmed that Aikengall wind farm operates with a load factor of between 25%-27%. This is a load factor significantly above the average for the many wind farms in the rest of Scotland which typically exhibit load factors in the 15-23% range. Thus Aikengall is on track to produce about 13MW of electricity per year - nowhere near the 48MW claimed by Community Windpower Ltd. in the application for this installation. The figures for the number of houses supplied, and amount of CO2 displaced, which are proudly quoted by Community Windpower Ltd. for Aikengall are similarly wildly inaccurate and misleading. Would the Councillors who make up the East Lothian Council planning committee have approved this development if they had known how predictably, consistently and woefully inefficient these wind farm operations are, and where the electricity which is actually being generated is in fact being supplied to? These Councillors are your elected representatives on the Council. You should ask them. Hindsight is an interesting thing. The question is - will they now be blagged all over again?
Despite its misleading name, Community Windpower Ltd. is in fact a private company, owned by two Cheshire-based accountants. The company is projected to make at least £60m from Aikengall alone; this amount excludes the verbal promise to drip feed a token amount into the local area. Should they gain approval for their application for the monster 30 turbine development at Aikengall II - Wester Dod, this will net Community Windpower Ltd. at least another £200m.
It is difficult to recognise any significant connection between the local Lammermuirs community and this company. Because there isn’t any.
A further claim on Community Windpower Ltd’s website is: “We believe in an open and consultative approach with these local communities during the development stage of the project and prior to the submission of a planning application”.
A recent planning application by Community Windpower Ltd. for a single wind turbine near Dunbar was submitted to East Lothian Council with no site notification, no neighbour notification, no consultation with the local population, no risk assessment, no technical specification and no environmental impact analysis.
This is a perfect example of the disingenuous public relations, spin exercises and downright hypocrisy which pervades the money focussed developers who have totally hijacked the entire green agenda for their own financial self-gratification. The reality is that they care not a jot for the environment, only for their bulging personal bank balances.
This truly is the unacceptable face of capitalism, since the hundreds of millions of pounds of profits that this company hopes to make in the next 25 years will be sourced almost directly from the electricity bills of ordinary people.
