Wind power expensive and heavily subsidized?

Isn’t wind power expensive and heavily subsidized?

No. The cost of generating electricity from the wind has fallen dramatically over the past few years. Wind power can now produce electricity at a cheaper price than nuclear power in the UK. Energy from the wind will become even cheaper in the future as greater experience is gained in manufacturing and developing this relatively new technology.

When the full costs of the environmental damage caused by fossil fuels and nuclear power are taken into account, wind power is an even better buy. For example, it has been estimated that if the cost of environmental damage were included, the price of electricity from coal would be three times higher than electricity from the wind. The full costs of nuclear power, including dealing with highly-radioactive waste and decommissioning of old plants, are still not included in the price of electricity after decades of operating stations in the UK, and the nuclear industry is still dependent on massive Government subsidy.

The cost to the consumer of supporting the initial development of wind power in the UK has been very small. The Non-Fossil Fuel Levy, set up at the time of electricity privatisation, supported all non-fossil fuel sources of electricity: nuclear power and renewable energy. However, almost 90 per cent of that subsidy went to the nuclear industry. The Government has replaced this arrangement with the Renewables Obligation, which requires electricity suppliers to provide up to 20 per cent of their electricity from a variety of renewable sources by 2020. The cost of the Renewables Obligation made up about 1 per cent of our household energy bills in 2010.