Government admits that wind turbines are not as efficient as they said

The government has decreased its forecasts for the amount of electricity it expects wind turbines to produce. In the light of an auction of green energy subsidies, officials are decreasing the predicted efficiency of wind turbines as follows:

Offshore: Down from 61.0% to 43.6%
Onshore: Down from 48.7% to 33.4%

As a proportion, this is down by 29% for offshore and 31% for onshore.

The update is from better modelling showing that the turbines generate lower outputs than previously thought.

The shadow energy secretary Clare Coutinho said that the current government is relying on bogus numbers to make Net Zero appear cheaper than it actually is.

However since the Tories were cheerfully implementing Net Zero themselves until relatively recently, one wonders what has caused this change of attitude. Perhaps they've been learning some science; admittedly unlikely, but it's possible.

Labour is still committed to switching the Grid to 95% clean power (renewables plus nuclear) by 2030. Nuclear investment remains minimal so I guess that even higher energy bills (caused by building even more wind turbines and solar farms) will be the result.

The effect of excessive renewables on energy generation costs is well-documented. Have a look at the graph below.

Then try to square this with what Ed Miliband said yesterday: "Clean energy offers our best chance to escape from the high energy bills that have caused the cost of living crisis".

You couldn't make this up.

Either the minister is unaware of the data, which amounts to negligence, or is deliberately ignoring it, which is worse.

This is not going to end well.



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