Institution responds to the UK Government bringing an early end to onshore wind farm subsidies

The Institution's Dr Jenifer Baxter welcomes the news and says the money saved from this decision should be channelled into research and development of the next generation of low carbon technologies and improved technologies around the management of radioactive wastes.

Dr Jenifer Baxter, Head of Energy and Environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said in response to the UK Government bringing an early end to onshore wind farm subsidies:

“This is a welcome move from the Government. Onshore wind turbines are an intermittent and expensive way to generate low carbon energy.

“If we are serious about reducing global warming impacts and meeting the UK’s ambitious carbon reduction targets, Government needs to focus on winding-down all coal-fired power generation and replacing it with lower carbon alternative technologies that may include gas-fired power, which produces around half the amount of carbon. Nuclear power generation also has a role to play, as this does not generate any direct carbon emissions at all. We cannot meet the UK’s ambitious carbon reduction target using current renewables, like onshore wind, alone.

“The money saved from this decision should be channelled into research and development of the next generation of low carbon technologies and improved technologies around the management of radioactive wastes. We need to find new ways of generating low-carbon, reliable electricity and move away from providing generous subsidies to out-dated and ineffective technologies like onshore wind farms.”

“Wind and other current renewables do have a part to play in the current and future energy mix, particularly for decentralised heat and power networks and they should be encouraged to continue applications in these areas.”