Foreign Firms to Earn GBP 120 Billion on UK’s Offshore Wind Bills

Foreign companies will earn up to GBP 120 billion by 2020 on British subsidies for offshore wind, the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) claims. This will be done through burdening consumers’ electricity bills.

According to REF, owners of nine new UK’s large-scale offshore wind farms, which are expected to be mostly operational by 2020, will acquire more than GBP 6 billion annually and amount to GBP 120 million over the lifespan of a wind turbine, which is 20 years.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) responded that REF’s figures are just a speculation, The Telegraph writes.

DECC is working with the industry on reducing the costs by a third by 2020, the Department’s spokesman is cited by the news site as saying.

RenewableUK agrees with DECC on the REF’s figures, saying that they are exaggerated, as the costs will scale down by 2020.

“Driving down costs relentlessly is the key. So to pretend that the costs will be the same in 2020 as they are now is ludicrous,”  The Telegraph quotes Nick Medic, RenewableUK’s director of Offshore Renewables.

He further explains: “As always, REF also ignores the fact that the economic benefits outweigh the costs. Companies invested more than £1.5 billion in the UK offshore wind industry last year. More than 47,000 people will be employed in the sector by 2020, many of them in highly skilled jobs.”

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Offshore WIND Staff, February 4, 2013; Image: DONG Energy