Knowledge: Wind
Protection racket
With the wind industry likely to play a central role in the fi ght against climate
change, David Taylor, business development manager at UFW, calls for investment
to be protected amid cuts to the Feed-in Tariff
C
limate change is a very serious
issue, and it was only recently
that prime minster David
Cameron said he believed man-
made climate change to be ‘one of the most
serious threats that this country and this
world faces’. It is, therefore, no surprise, that
there is increasing focus on a planet-wide
push for greener energy.
Climate change minister Greg Barker
announced last year that he wants a
decentralised power to the people – not just
a few exemplars, buts tens of thousands.
He wants us all to do more to integrate new
policies that help families produce their own
renewable electricity.
But despite the rhetoric from the
ministers we have just seen a substantial cut
in the Feed-in Tariff rate for wind turbines up
to 15kW – those which largely serve the rural,
domestic, farm, school and small business
based sector, where a combination of the
Feed-in Tariff and renewable energy supply
bring affordable energy independence to
thousands.
So I suppose one must ask, why are we
penalising those very people trying to reduce
their energy costs and make a contribution
against climate change? And, perhaps more
importantly, what’s the alternative?
We have recently been privy to the
second of three publications by the UN’s
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
and it is one of the most comprehensive
investigations into the impact of climate
change ever undertaken; it makes distressing
reading.
The report cites that a global mean
temperature increase of 2.5C above pre
industrial levels could lead to global aggregate
economic losses of between 0.2-2 percent; put
simply a 2 percent reduction would wipe $1.4
trn off the world’s economic output.
Cutting investment
now will put British
manufacturers out of
business and make it hard
for communities to generate
their own electricity
The evidence is there: farm scale wind
energy is still a great investment on many
levels.
Small wind is a manufacturing success
story, and the UK is one of the windiest
countries in Europe, and domestic energy
prices look set to rise.
Turbines are designed to capture wind
and, unlike most conventional power plants,
they do not pollute. 2014 to date has been
blighted by fl oods and extreme weather, and
evidence suggests that carbon dioxide is at its
highest level for 800,000 years.
Capturing wind energy is one of the
key ways in which we can work to reduce
dependence on traditional energy sources.
In doing so, we will see more manageable
energy costs for all, a boost in the de-
carbonising process, and ultimately a reversal
in the impact of climate change - it’s a
solution I fi rmly believe will continue to build
momentum as more and more people are
educated on turbines.
And across the sector, manufacturers
have been working to improve effi ciency,
lifespan and raise production levels so that
Feed-in Tariff support will be an increasingly
smaller part of the equation.
It’s right that as more farm size turbines
are installed support is scaled back, but
cutting investment now will put British
manufacturers out of business and make it
hard for farmers and communities to generate
their own electricity. We need to collectively
nurture this investment.
The wind energy industry is working
hard to raise awareness of the importance of
farm scale energy, and to ensure that more
proportionate planning requirements which
recognise the difference between farm scale
turbines are put in place.
We all need to wake up to the current
situation, and work together to ensure the
future of this industry, and the environmental
wellbeing of this country and abroad. There
isn’t an alternative.
Risky business: Unabated climate change would
wipe $1.4 trn off the world’s economic output,
warns David Taylor, business development
manager at UFW
We all need to wake up to
the current situation, and
work together to ensure the
future of this industry
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