Ecotricity blasts government policy on onshore wind

Ecotricity boss Dale Vince has blasted government policies around onshore wind as the firm switches on a wind park at Alveston, South Gloucestershire.

The controversial Vince said Britain’s onshore wind industry has been “effectively killed off by government policy” which “prevents” all new developments.

The new three turbine site at Alveston will provide enough electricity to power more than 3,000 homes for the next 30 years.

Ecotricity now has 25 wind parks with over 70 turbines that generate around 90MW a year.

“It’s always great to build another wind park and put it into operation,” said Vince.

“This one is a little bittersweet because without a change of government, or government policy, this could be the last one built in England.

“Current government policy, to prevent new wind parks in England makes no sense and is a political choice,” he added. “Because onshore energy isn’t just good for the environment, it makes good economic sense too.”

There have been repeated calls to let onshore wind compete in ‘Pot 1’ style Contracts for Difference auctions, which they are currently barred from entering.

Last month, the climate change minister Claire Perry said she wants to enable onshore wind projects to compete for subsidies in areas where they enjoy public support.

During a question and answer session at the Conservative thinktank Bright Blue’s environment and energy conference, she said she was keen to find ways to allow onshore wind projects to be developed outside of England.

In the last couple of weeks Ecotricity has also been granted planning permission to build one of the country’s first grid scale battery storage projects on its Alveston site.

The 10MW project will share the grid connection with these three new windmills, making better use of the available capacity.