Householders pay ‘green’ bill
Feb 5 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
Landowners offered cash incentive
THE Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROC) are a chance for big energy suppliers to prove they are committed to climate change without having to invest in renewable technology.
There are three steps in the energy chain, the producer, the supplier and the consumer and all are tied into the ROC scheme.
For each Megawatt hour of energy a wind turbine company produces the electricity regulator Ofgem gives them one ROC.
Energy companies who supply energy to our homes are under an obligation to invest in renewable sources.
Ofgem wants each supplier to have a certain amount of ROCs each year to show their commitment but many companies just buy these up without any real investment.
ROCs are typically selling for about £46, which inflates the price of wholesale electricity for generators. That gives them a huge incentive to find sites where they can erect turbines – meaning landowners can be offered £100,000 a year for housing a wind farm.
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Why I’ve changed my direction - Alastair GilmourLAST June I tramped over several miles of Northumberland moorland to get the background on proposals to build wind farms on tourist-sensitive sites.
As a head-straightening exercise, it certainly did the trick. I admit to thinking previously that there was something beautiful about these tall, white, slender structures with their sculptural, haunting quality. Observing them at work was hypnotic, poetically rhythmic and functional. We’re constantly told we need to look at alternative energy sources as a matter of some urgency and as wind technology is fairly advanced, free, and wave-power remains a far-off dream, there’s your answer. And they weren’t in my back yard. But roam a little, delve a bit, talk lots to people running businesses which are totally reliant on visitors, then argue with activists, listen to concerned campaigners and follow the trails of corporations and your opinion gradually alters.
Discover how much money is being earned by wind farm operators through ROCs and you begin to revise your opinion. Realise that corporate noses are deep in subsidy troughs with not a speck of regard for local communities and the binding spell of a slowly-turning blade begins to crack.
Before last June, I had allowed myself to be blown along by the prevailing opinion that wind power is the only answer. On appropriate sites, it is certainly one solution, but wind farms are not a fraction as efficient as some operators would have you believe and their detrimental effect on some of our most stunning landscape is a price not worth considering. I am now happy to stand up and face the wind; lining the pockets of an offshore corporation is quite another matter.
