One Of UK's Largest Wind Farm Developers Threatens To Leave Country

[hatrack]

One of the UK's largest wind farm developers has threatened to pull out of the country as a storm blows up over the Government's plans for renewable energy.

A logjam in the planning process for developers means that many wind farms will not be operational for a decade. Unless financing rules are changed, Wind Energy is warning that many will never even get built, which could force the Government to miss its targets on renewable energy. The timing of the protest is embarrassing for the Government, which next month will close consultation on its energy review on nuclear power. Its previous review - only three years ago - was supposed to back renewable energy such as wind power.

Wind Energy wants to build 800MW of onshore wind farms in Scotland, enough to power a city the size of Edinburgh. National Grid has told the company, and developers of around 100 other wind farms in Scotland, totalling around 6,000MW, that they will not be connected to the grid before 2016.

But despite the huge timelag, developers still have to table deposits upfront to cover the cost of the upgrades to the grid - even if planning permission for their site is not granted and the wind farm does not go ahead.

EDIT

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article352112.ece

[jpak]

1. Was just about to post this

What a clusterfuck - the money, hardware and knowhow is there...but the projects are not allowed to proceed.

Wonder if this is intentional...

[Dead_Parrot]

2. Nimbyism is rampant in the UK

I recall an article (shortly before I jumped ship) about a well-to-do community running a successful campaign to stop an off-shore windfarm being developed where it might spoil their view: That the community (somewhere around somerset, IIRC) was less than a metre above sea-level didn't even make them pause. And then there's the delightful Greenpeace opposes wind farm plan which made me realise just how badly Greenpeace had lost touch with planet Earth. Or the biofuel (chickenshit, to be exact) powerstation that got dumped near Northampton because people were "worried about the smell" even though there wouldn't be any...

The list is endless, sadly.

Just for shits and giggles, here's what the UK will look like in a couple of hundred years (unless they do something quick):



Goodbye Piccadilly: Farewell Leicester Square...

[jpak]

4. When the UK suffers its first *real* gas shortage

they will change their tunes PDQ...

[Dead_Parrot]

5. Yeah, they'll re-open the coal mines...

...as soon as it's profitable again. :grr:

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Same as here...

the Brits are no smarter than we are about this stuff.

Haven't learned a damn thing since that British Rail fiasco.

[Odin2005]

7. Greenpeace opposes wind farms!?!

They have officially gone off the deep end. First they were against nuclear, now they are against wind? I swear, they won't be happy unless everyone lives it some shack in the woods with no electricity and live by subsistance farming. :crazy:

[Dead_Parrot]

8. They seem to changed again...

according to their website it's back on the menu: Although it looks like no one will be able to travel except by train, horse or foot since they've missed out any form of transport energy. Strangley, they are in favour of destroying wetlands with tidal barriers.

Honestly, they couldn't find thier own arses with a map.

[hatrack]

9. Looks like the United Archipelago, when you get right down to it

Or maybe the United Kingdom of Earthsea (thanks Ursula, wherever you are).

We have the same shit here with Cape Cod and the proposed wind farm there. No, no, no - can't have that - Walter Cronkite's view might be spoiled. But blowing the shit out of West Virginia so we can dust everything with mercury - hey, that's cool!!

:eyes:

[JohnWxy]

3. Wow, I thought the Nuclear and Natural Gas industries had power

here! This quite an achievement. They will be able to bring progress in renewable energy development in Britain to a screeching halt.

Cheney's friends in the fossil fuel industries must be positively GREEN (sorry about the use of THAT word) with ENVY!