Wasted Wind Power Costs Britain Almost £1.5 Billion in 2025
Nearly £1.5 billion worth of wind power has gone to waste in Britain this year, as grid bottlenecks dog Ed Miliband’s Net Zero plans and drive household bills higher. The Telegraphhas the story.
The cost of switching off wind turbines and firing up alternative power sources in 2025 has jumped by nearly a fifth compared to last year, new data shows.
Households and businesses ultimately bear these costs through their bills.
So-called curtailment occurs when the grid is congested and cannot transport power from wind farms in remote areas, often in Scotland, to where it is needed most in other parts of the country.
At the same time, grid operators must call on gas plants to step in and keep the lights on with replacement power, often at great expense.
Regulator Ofgem warned earlier this year that curtailment had added around £15 to household bills under its October price cap.
With only days to go before the end of December, the combined total of this spending now stands at £1.46 billion this year – up from £1.23 billion in 2024, data from the Wasted Wind tracker website show. …
The cost of wasted wind power is expected to climb further in the coming years as Mr Miliband pushes for further wind and solar generation to be connected to the grid to meet Labour’s ambitious Net Zero targets.
As part of the rollout, the Government is also scrambling to upgrade the electricity grid’s capacity. Still, key projects are currently on course to be delivered later than needed, raising the prospect of billions of pounds in additional curtailment costs.
Utterly ridiculous or totally corrupt, that these wind farms are given building consent when it is KNOWN that the grid in that area cannot take the full output. The SNP are particularly bad for this.
It’s like me building a supermarket at the top of a mountain, and the government then forcing all shoppers to pay extra in their local stores to pay me for my “wasted stock”
The whole thing is utterly idiotic.
Gezza England
3 months ago
The good news is that there is no way the UK will get anywhere near the 95% target set for the year after the government is no more as the resources just do not exist. Another very large problem is that a whole host of windmills are coming to the end of their life as this stupidity goes back nearly 2 decades. Of course in that time, windmills have changed and generally got bigger so the current foundations are no longer suitable.
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Genius policy – generate electricity intermittently as far as possible from where it’s most needed.
Clean power is dirty lies.
And the more wind turbines the more the cost of “waste” power.
Batteries too will require perpetual subsidy since they cannot supply continuously, only periodically for very short periods – hours.
…and those owning the windmills are paid anyway, whether or not the power is used.
Utterly ridiculous or totally corrupt, that these wind farms are given building consent when it is KNOWN that the grid in that area cannot take the full output. The SNP are particularly bad for this.
It’s like me building a supermarket at the top of a mountain, and the government then forcing all shoppers to pay extra in their local stores to pay me for my “wasted stock”
The whole thing is utterly idiotic.
The good news is that there is no way the UK will get anywhere near the 95% target set for the year after the government is no more as the resources just do not exist. Another very large problem is that a whole host of windmills are coming to the end of their life as this stupidity goes back nearly 2 decades. Of course in that time, windmills have changed and generally got bigger so the current foundations are no longer suitable.
I saw a video (presumably authentic) of wind turbines being felled like trees using explosives.