The government has “no plans” to reverse its resistance to onshore wind farms despite mounting pressure to reverse the policy, a government minister has told the House of Lords.
The government has previously ruled that onshore wind projects could not bid for support through CfD (Contract for Difference) auctions following the Conservative victory at the 2015 general election, while also making it easier for local councils to turn down schemes through the planning system.
The pressure on ministers to reverse this stance has intensified since the Committee on Climate Change concluded in its landmark net-zero report in early May that the policy is cutting off a source of cheap, low carbon electricity.
And last week, the Conservative Environment Foundation published new polling which showed that three quarters of Tory voters support onshore wind.
However, responding questions in the House of Lords this afternoon (8 July), junior business minister Lord Henley said the government has no plans to review the policy.
“Look at the success of offshore wind and the way the price has come down. The opportunities for offshore wind to come down are far greater than for onshore because of the scale of the windmills one can build at sea compared to on land. We have no plans to review that policy.”
He also defended the 2040 date for ending the sale of internal combustion engine cars and vans amidst grow calls to bring it forward.
The minister said that accelerating the phase out date “would cause major problems for the whole automotive industry and the date is right”.
But he adopted a more equivocal in response to a question from Lord Forsyth, former secretary of state for Scotland, who queried the sustainability credentials of importing wood pellets from North America to burn in UK biomass plants, like Drax’s converted coal-fired power stations.
Lord Henley said: “Sometimes shipping wood across the Atlantic is not the best way to go about it but it is a considerable improvement on continuing to burn coal.”
Later, during questions on smart meters roll out, he insisted that the programme is making progress, pointing to figures showing that 14.3 million of the devices had been installed by the end of March.