All new public subsidies for onshore wind farms will end with legislationfrom April 1, 2016, the U.K. government announcedonline through theDepartment of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), Thursday.
Legislation will be introduced toclosethe renewables obligationto new onshore wind generating stations from 1 April 2016,the press release said.
In 2002,the renewables obligation,the main supportmechanism for renewable electricity projects in theU.K., came into effectin England andWales, and Scotland, followed by Northern Ireland in 2005,and made it obligatory for U.K. electricity supplierstosource an increasing proportion of the electricityfrom renewables.
TheConservative Party announced on April 14through their manifesto that the partyintendsto follow through on de-carbonization goals "as cost-effectively as possible" while vowingto halt subsidiesfor onshore wind farms.
After the elections, Amber Rudd, energy and climate change secretary,said that ending subsidies for onshore wind farms was one of her top priorities. The Queen’s speech on May 27, also introduced the changedlaw,givinglocal communities the final say on onshore wind farm applications.
Meanwhile, smaller scale generation is mainly supported through theFeed-In Tariff scheme.
"DECC will look at options to continue support forcommunity energy projects, as part of the Feed-in Tariff Review later this year," according tothe press release.
"We want to help technologies stand on their own two feet, not encourage a reliance on public subsidies," Rudd said in the written statement.
Rudd added that there is enoughsubsidizedwind projects to meet the UK.'srenewable energy targets.
Additionally, projects with up to5.2 gigawatts of onshore wind capacitythat already have planning consent, a grid connection offer and acceptance, as well as evidence of land rights could be givena grace period.
In 2014, 24 megawatts of onshorecapacity was installed in the U.K.During the same year,over £800 million ($1.3 billion)of government subsidies helped onshore wind to generate 5 percentof the U.K.’s total electricity.
At the end of 2014, the countryhad 12.4gigawatts of wind parks,two thirds of which wereonshore.
The U.K. targets to supply 15 percentof its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
(Anadolu Agency)
