Displaying items by tag: wind farms

In a televised cabinet meeting, Donald Trump launched a furious tirade against the UK, blaming wind farms for rising energy costs. Reviving his long-standing grudge against offshore turbines near his Scottish golf course, he falsely claimed that 'windmills' had sent UK energy prices 'through the roof' and were 'ruining every country’. He also repeated discredited conspiracy theories linking turbines to whale deaths, despite scientists attributing recent strandings to climate change and warming seas. Experts note that wind power is in fact one of the cheapest energy sources, significantly undercutting gas, coal, and nuclear power. Surveys show it is the UK’s second most popular form of energy generation, just behind nuclear, while fossil fuels remain the least favoured. Trump also criticised solar farms for taking up too much land and suggested the UK faced a 'bad awakening' for closing down oil operations. His comments marked a rare direct attack on a US ally, stirring debate over his reliability on climate and energy issues.

Wind turbines have generated more electricity than gas for the first time in the UK. Imperial College London’s research revealed that 1/3 of UK electricity came from wind farms in the first three months of 2023. National Grid also confirmed that April saw a record period of solar energy generation. By 2035 the UK aims for all electricity to have net zero emissions. There are still many hurdles to reaching a completely fossil fuel-free grid, but wind out-supplying gas for the first time is a genuine milestone event. The majority of the UK's wind power comes from offshore wind farms. Installing new onshore wind turbines has effectively been banned since 2015. Under current planning rules, companies can only apply to build onshore wind turbines on land specifically identified for development in the land-use plans drawn up by local councils.

A recent study by scientists at the University of Sussex and Denmark’s Aarhus University found that if wind farms were established on the available and appropriate land, they could meet 140% of the UK and Ireland’s energy demand. Although not all this land would be used, in the interest of preserving biodiversity, they said the research showed how much potential onshore wind has to solve the energy crisis. Also, they need not blight the most beautiful parts of England because there is plenty of room for them next to rail lines and on brownfield land. In the recent energy strategy the Government decided to keep the curbs on onshore wind introduced by David Cameron; the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said the turbines were an ‘eyesore’. Boris Johnson emphasised his support for offshore wind but did not noticeably back onshore wind farms.