New onshore wind installations are at the lowest level since 2011 with 598MW created made up of 263 turbines at 54 sites, down from a record 2,666MW installed in 2017.

With Hitachi is suspending development of the Wylfa nuclear power plant the gap in clean energy needed to meet the UK’s carbon targets is now substantial, and a RenewableUK analysis shows a gap of over 55TWh needed by 2030 – equivalent to over 15 per cent of annual demand – due to the closure of existing nuclear plants and other ageing power stations in the 2020s.

There is currently 4,466MW of shovel-ready onshore wind that has gone through the local planning process, which could generate over 12TWh a year, yet progress has been slowed by changing Policy. RenewableUK believes that the downturn in new capacity is largely the result of policy to block onshore wind from schemes that support renewable energy deployment. In 2015, the Government announced it would close the Renewables Obligation scheme to new onshore wind and the scheme officially closed in 2017, contributing to record deployment that year. The Government have also barred onshore wind projects from competing in the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, which uses competitive price auctions to procure new renewable capacity at lowest cost.

Commenting on the new figures, RenewableUK’s Executive Director Emma Pinchbeck said “Onshore wind is now the cheapest source of new power for UK billpayers, and it is supported by more than three-quarters of the British public. We have ready-to-go onshore wind that can help close the gap between the low carbon power we need and the amount Government policy is actually delivering, and this week’s announcement on nuclear power has made this mammoth task even harder.”

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