On-shore wind power can help solve energy crisis - Yorkshire Post Letters

The cost of energy is a major cause of the increase in the cost of living.

Fossil fuel costs have rocketed over the last year so why does the Government resist on-shore wind as an alternative?

According to a recent Government report, electricity from on-shore wind or solar could be supplied in 2025 at half the cost of gas-fired power (BEIS).

The new report is the Government’s first public admission of the dramatic reductions in the cost of renewables in recent years. It had previously carried out internal updates to its cost estimates, in both 2018 and 2019, but these were never published despite repeated questions in parliament.

All but one of Britain’s existing nuclear plants are scheduled to close by 2030, and Hinkley Point C, the first new plant in more than 20 years, is expected to come online in 2026, almost a decade later than originally promised and over budget.

Replacing oil and gas with nuclear energy is almost twice as expensive as on-shore wind power and takes much longer to install. Edf Renewables reckon that a 10 MW wind farm can easily be built in two months.

A larger 50 MW wind farm can be built in six months. I suspect that the real reason for the lack of Government support is that it does not want to upset its Conservative supporters in the shire counties. This is despite an approval rating of over 70 per cent for on-shore wind energy from the general public.