Britain's plans to meet a quarter of the UK's energy needs with wind power may help the planet but according to official figures it may end up costing the earth.
Energy minister Lord Hunt said achieving ambitious targets to harness wind energy and plug 25GW of additional offshore wind power into the National Grid will cost around £10.4 billion to connect alone.
And according to research by the British Wind Energy Association, wind power costs a further £3.1 million per MW of installed power.
To install the Government's wind power target of 25GW would therefore cost £77.5 billion on top of the costs for connection – bringing the entire project cost in at £88 billion, or the price tag for 100 traditional power stations.
Although there is no ongoing cost for raw materials, the £88 billion bill eclipses all other form of energy generation, including nuclear.
The bill for the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant being built in Finland - the first in Western Europe for more than a decade – is expected to reach £2.25 billion. The much troubled nuclear power project has the capacity to generate 1.7GW
However, gas and coal-fired power stations are much cheaper as RWE Npower is planning to build a gas-fired power station in the UK with a budget of £800m.
The controversial scheme for a coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent is expected to cost about £1bn.
Responding to questions in the House of Lords, energy minister Lord Hunt last week said: “The department has not undertaken any forecasting on the costs of the infrastructure needed for 25GW of additional offshore wind power.
“However, any such calculation would be dependent on a number of factors including the location of future offshore wind farms (distance from the shore and water depth), turbine, supply chain and installation costs, and planning costs.
“The combined onshore and offshore cost of connecting the 25GW of Round 3 offshore wind generation projects is estimated by National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) to be £10.4 billion.”
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