UK to end subsidies for onshore wind farms

The British government Thursday announced that it planned to stop subsidizing new onshore wind farms starting from April 1, 2016.

The subsidy is part of the Renewables Obligation, the funding of which comes from levies added to household fuel bills.

There will be a grace period for projects which already have planning permission, according to a press release from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

In 2014, over 800 million pounds (around 1.3 billion U.S. dollars) of government subsidies helped onshore wind to generate five percent of the UK's total electricity, with the high volume of onshore wind either deployed or in the pipeline meaning that the UK is well on the way to meeting its climate change targets, the press release said.

"So we are driving forward our commitment to end new onshore wind subsidies and give local communities the final say over any new wind farms. Onshore wind is an important part of our energy mix and we now have enough subsidised projects in the pipeline to meet our renewable energy commitments," said Amber Rudd, Energy and Climate Change Secretary.

But the move, part of a manifesto commitment by the Conservative party ahead of the general election in May, was seen by some experts as jeopardizing new wind farm plans.

Experts said the changes will could make it more difficult for local authorities to give the go-ahead to new wind installations. Endit