Leader: Wind power always comes at a cost

SCOTLAND’S big ambitions in renewables look to have been taken a step nearer the achievable with news of plans to build the world’s biggest offshore wind farm in the Moray Firth.

The proposal, from Moray Offshore Renewables, a joint venture between Spanish/Portuguese company EDP and Spanish oil and gas firm Repsol Nuevas Energias, envisages between 200 and 300 turbines in 200ft of water 13 miles off the Caithness coast, potentially generating up to 1,500MW of wind power, about the same as a conventional power station. The ultimate cost of the project could rise to £4.5 billion, with initial spending on planning and development put at £50 million. This is a colossal project by any standards and, in addition to mooted job creation, would take Scotland some way to generating the equivalent of 100 per cent of the country’s electricity needs by 2020 if the field is able to come on stream on or before then.

But this breathtaking project will come at a cost. This will be by any standards an expensive form of renewable power generation and much of it will be paid for by electricity consumers – business and domestic – out of their electricity bills.

This could cost jobs and make some businesses unviable – note the recent decision to by Rio Tinto Alcan to close the aluminium smelter in Lynemouth, Northumberland because of rising energy costs “due largely to emerging legislation”. Innovation should bring savings – but consumers should be under no illusion as to who picks up the tab for this wind power on the sea horizon.