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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday April 19 2017, @07:11PM   Printer-friendly

Meanwhile, a report from Scottish Renewables suggests that onshore wind farms could compete subsidy-free in the UK, as long as they were allowed to take part in the country's competitive auction process. (Known as contracts for difference, or CfD, the competitive auction process does not currently include onshore wind.)

Finally, while the loss of incentives and tax credits might have less impact than it once did—thanks to ongoing cost reduction and technological improvement—we are right to be concerned that political obstructionists can still do a lot of damage to the future of renewables. (The exclusion of wind from the aforementioned CfD process in the UK is one example.) But here too, there are signs of progress—because oil giant Shell is lobbying for the Dutch government to quadruple its offshore wind target for 2030 to an installed capacity of a whopping 20 gigawatts (GW). As Shell joins the likes of Statoil—which recently quit tar sands in favor of offshore wind—the shift of political and lobbying power starts to shift.

More signs that the pivot point in the energy economy is upon us.


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  • (Score: 2) by tomtomtom on Thursday April 20 2017, @07:46AM (1 child)

    by tomtomtom (340) on Thursday April 20 2017, @07:46AM (#496746)

    CfDs are a guaranteed price provided by the government for each unit of electricity generated - they are subsidies. Onshore wind is about to become completely unsubsidized in the UK and will not have access to the CfD regime.

    What the onshore developers are saying here is the exact opposite of the headline - that they want to be able to compete for subsidy money which is currently going to offshore wind etc and which they are currently excluded from. The "no new subsidies" bit is them saying "don't increase the total subsidy pot, just give us a share of it and reduce the amount you give to someone more expensive".

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  • (Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Thursday April 20 2017, @02:15PM

    by purple_cobra (1435) on Thursday April 20 2017, @02:15PM (#496862)

    Lovely term, isn't it? I can just picture the faces of the people around the table when that was floated in front of them: "Come on gentleman, let me see your O face for this!".