WWF–Scotland Cites Record May As Reason To Support Onshore Wind

Citing new record wind figures from May across Scotland, WWF-Scotland has called upon the UK Government to rethink its plans to roll back its support of onshore wind power.

The call comes only a couple of weeks after the UK made it clear that it intended to use the Queen’s Speech to announce that onshore wind would cease to receive support, and that planning authority would be handed over to local authorities.

This new demand comes hot on the heels of the latest electricity figures for the month of May, provided by WeatherEnergy, and analysed by WWF-Scotland. Accordingly, the figures showed that wind power provided enough electricity to the National Grid to supply just under half the electrical needs of all Scottish households.

“Strong winds throughout the month helped to make it a record-breaking May for wind power output, with enough clean energy generated to supply the needs of 47% of Scotland’s entire electricity demand from homes, businesses and industry for the month,” said WWF Scotland’s director Lang Banks.

“However, despite the fact onshore wind power is clearly working, the continued development of this clean energy technology in Scotland is at risk as a result of UK plans to end support for the industry earlier than planned,” Banks continued.

“Cutting support now for the lowest cost renewable technology would be a backwards step that will either see consumer bills rise or our climate targets missed.”

Earlier in May, the new Energy and Climate Change Secretary for the newly elected Conservative Party, Amber Rudd, said that she “quite enjoyed seeing wind farms” but that it was time to put “the local community back in charge.”

“It will mean no more onshore wind farm subsidies and no more onshore wind farms without local community support,” Rudd said to The Sunday Times. “This is really important. I’ve already got my team working on it. That’s going to be one of the first things we’re going to do.”