Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Tories blow cold on onshore wind

Post Thumbnail

A ban on onshore wind farms is set to feature in the Conservative Party Manifesto for next year’s General Election.

The Tories are planning a moratorium on future onshore wind farms from 2020 on the grounds that they have now become “self-defeating”, claim insiders.

Instead, the party will argue subsides should be directed towards more offshore wind farms and greater use of solar power.

The move comes after a Sunday Post investigation, which called for a re-think on onshore wind farms, revealed turbine operators in Scotland have banked £1.8 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies since 2007.

The Tories’ previous attempts to curb onshore wind farms whilst in Government have been thwarted by their Lib Dem coalition partners but the manifesto move is seen as a way of tapping into growing anger about the turbines in the party’s electoral heartlands.

Even though planning decisions north of the Border are devolved to Holyrood, any Westminster clampdown on wind farm subsidies would hammer Scotland.

A Department for Energy and Climate Change report out next week will highlight Scotland gets 28% (£560 million) of UK Government renewable subsides but accounts for 10% of electricity sales.

A senior Tory party source was reported as saying energy policy measures in the manifesto will, in effect, rule out the building of onshore wind farms from 2020.

They said: “We are not going to allow the Lib Dems to characterise us as anti-clean energy just because we want to control the number of onshore wind farms.

“We are mindful that uncontrolled expansion of onshore wind is alienating people from the whole clean energy debate.”

Any move by a UK Government to clamp down on wind farms would put it on a collision course with the Scottish Government, which remains a firm supporter of the renewable technology and is charge of planning decisions north of the Border.

The SNP points to warnings from regulator OFGEM that the gap between energy supply and demand across the UK could be as low as 2% by 2015/16, raising the prospect of winter blackouts.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “There is strong public support for the development of wind power, but it is important that we have the right developments in the right places.”