LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Renewable energy body lodges complaint over NI Audit Office report 

Credit:  By Conor Macauley, BBC NI Agriculture & Environment Correspondent | BBC News | www.bbc.co.uk ~~

The renewables industry has lodged a formal complaint about a Northern Ireland Audit Office report that found excessive subsidies are being paid to owners of wind turbines.

Industry representative body RenewableNI said that the work was “not fit for purpose” and should be disregarded.

But the Audit Office has “strongly refuted” the assertion.

RenewableNI took issue with the report published in October.

It focused on stand-alone single wind turbines, not big wind farms.

The report used the example of a turbine that could earn £95,000 per year in subsidies and pay back the £300,000 build cost in four years, enjoying a further 16 years of payments.

There are 1,200 such stand-alone turbines in Northern Ireland.

The Audit Office said the payments, raised from a levy on customers’ electricity bills, were “excessive”.

RenewableNI said the figures in the Audit Office report were based on a single turbine that was not connected to the electricity grid.

It disputed the cost assumptions and said its members, which are delivering such projects, did not recognise the figures.

“From initial investment, development and generation costs to ongoing maintenance, insurance and operating costs, the Audit Office has got it wrong on all counts,” said spokesman Steven Agnew.

“In doing so (they) have undermined the significant contribution of the small scale renewables sector to the economy and the environment.”

He said they had not only lodged a formal complaint with the Audit Office under its grievance procedure but commissioned accountants to produce an independent audit.

RenewableNI said the cost of buying and installing a turbine was typically at least £600,000, twice what the Audit Office had suggested.

The Audit Office confirmed the complaint and said it had offered to meet RenewableNI to discuss their concerns.

It said due to the absence of official data on rates of return for turbines from both the Department for the Economy and Office of Gas and Electricity Market (OFGEM), the body which administers the scheme, it had done its own calculations.

“We consider that our calculations are a reasonable estimate of an average rate of return,” the Audit Office said.

“As with all of our reports, this report is evidentially based and its accuracy was agreed with the Department for the Economy and the Utility Regulator in advance of publication.”

RenewableNI said it understood that BBC Spotlight was working on a programme based on the findings of the Audit Office report.

It said it had made the production team aware of its concerns over the accuracy of the figures in it.

Source:  By Conor Macauley, BBC NI Agriculture & Environment Correspondent | BBC News | www.bbc.co.uk

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon