Daily Mail Asks Is Ecotricity Wind Turbine Most Useless In The Country?
A wind turbine owned by Ecotricity has been described by The Daily Mail as one of the most useless in the country.
The wind turbine is sited next to the M4 near Reading and last year generated £100,000 worth of electricity. This may seem like a lot but the turbine has been working at just 15% capacity and yet received £130,000 in subsidies.
The Government is set to reduce the number of wind farms that are built in unsuitable locations i.e. where there’s little wind. The Energy Minister, Charles Hendry, said inefficient turbines should not be subsidized by public money.
The problem is that at the moment it is expensive to generate electricity from wind compared with coal fired power stations or nuclear plants so wind developers need subsidies to encourage them to invest. However, there are concerns that some unscrupulous developers are simply building wind farms in unsuitable places to take advantage of generous government subsidies.
Speaking from the Renewable Energy Foundation, Lee Moroney said that wind turbines should be put “in the most efficient sites rather than have a scattergun approach”.
The M4 turbine can generate around 2MW of electricity but Ofgem said that last year it only worked at 15.4% of its capacity. Another inefficient wind farm last year was at Chalker in Yorkshire. With four turbines it worked at just 5% capacity but made £27,000 in subsidies.
Obviously there are concerns that developers are making a lot of money from such inefficient turbines and Mr Hendry shares this concern. He said “We have launched a review of the Renewables Obligation Certificate” to ensure “the scheme doesn’t encourage development where resources are not so good”. He added “If people are getting a significant amount of money where the wind is not blowing strongly, it would suggest it is set at the wrong level”.
Meanwhile an Ecotricity spokesman said the M4 turbine, which is on a green business park, was put there to power the business park. He said the wind turbine has been doing a good job. They are happy with it and we are happy with it”.
Dale Vince, the owner of Ecotricity has responded to these claims by The Daily Mail that the M4 wind turbine is inefficient by saying that the turbine has been working since 2005 and generates the amount of electricity Ecotricity expected that it would.
As for the amount of money made from the turbine Mr Vince says The Mail is wrong. He said that to suggest the turbine is inefficient involved “using a “lies, damn lies and statistics” approach”.
Mr Vince uses the example of a car which he says runs at less than 1% of its maximum capacity each year but that this doesn’t mean it’s worthless.
Mr Vince argues that when attempts are made to locate turbines in windier places protestors complain and suggest they should be put in industrial locations. He says Ecotricity puts wind turbines in both windy and industrial locations. The benefit of them being on industrial sites is that people can see the turbines. He adds that the M4 Green Park turbine is “seen by millions of people a year and it’s changed the debate about wind energy, for the better”.
It seems this turbine is fulfilling the job it was put there to do but can this be said of all wind turbines?