Osborne wants to cut wind farm spending?

Chancellor George Osborne has allegedly been drawing up plans to cut subsidies to onshore wind farms by a quarter. According to a newspaper report over the weekend the Treasury is […]

Chancellor George Osborne has allegedly been drawing up plans to cut subsidies to onshore wind farms by a quarter. According to a newspaper report over the weekend the Treasury is considering a 25% cut to the Renewables Obligation (RO).

The RO subsidy is due to be replaced in 2017 under plans drawn up in the government’s Energy Bill, which is still being finalised.

Some are concerned about the threat to onshore wind in the short term if the Treasury gets its way. MP Alan Whitehead said in his blog the move is a “potentially life threatening attack on the shorter term deployment of onshore wind”.

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “It is vital that our support for renewable electricity both encourages investment and represents value for money for consumers. The Government will publish support levels for renewable electricity technologies for the period 2013 to 2017 shortly.”

The Treasury would not comment on the allegations.

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