Onshore wind industry makes cost reduction pledge

Renewable UK who is the trade body for wind and marine energy industries has published its 2015 Manifesto ahead of the 2015 General Election. It sets out its policy requirements for the next Government.

The Manifesto describes what contribution can be made to wind, wave and tidal power to give security of supply, reductions in energy bills and economic growth. It sets out the onshore wind is anticipated to be the cheapest for of new generation by 2020. A task force has then been created to ensure that goals are achieved.

Maria McCaffery, Chief Executive of RenewableUK, said: “The onshore wind industry is committed to driving down costs. With the right leadership from the next Government, we’re confident that we can do this, so come 2020 onshore wind will be cheaper than new nuclear, gas, and all other renewables.” “Many ageing fossil fuel-based power stations are going to close over the next decade, so we need to invest in new capacity. Onshore wind is a good choice in helping us cut costs and cut carbon. We hope the political parties will take on board this exciting opportunity, and work with us to help it come to fruition. The Committee on Climate Change has said we need to more than treble the amount of onshore wind we have today by 2030, and that means investment in the next Parliament”.

“Across all the objectives we looked at – security of energy supply, cost-reduction, economic growth, job creation and action on climate change, there was a clear conclusion that emerged – there needs to be some form of 2030 target, in terms of deployment or decarbonisation. Without a clear long term objective, it will be very difficult to build the generating capacity that the UK’s homes, businesses and factories will require. With certainty only in place until 2020, we won't see the scale of investment we need to cut costs, tackle our energy import dependency, create tens of thousands of jobs and arrest climate disruption unless this is addressed. We urge each party to consider this when writing their own manifestos and commit to some form of 2030 target.”