Families facing an extra £260 on their annual energy bill to pay for £100bn green energy expansion

David Derbyshire
Daily Mail
Thursday, June 26, 2008

Labour's plans to cover vast swaths of the countryside with wind farms will cost every family at least £260 a year in higher fuel bills, it emerged today.

The Government said the sacrifice was needed to reduce Britain's greenhouse gas emissions and meet Europe's targets for green energy.

Under its £100 billion plans unveiled by Gordon Brown yesterday, at least 4,000 wind turbines will go up in some of the UK most beautiful scenery, while another 3,000 will be built at sea.

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There will be new grants to encourage people to add solar panels, wind turbines and green heating systems to their homes.

And dustbin men could be forced to collect food scraps and slops from homes and turn them into green energy.

Brown speaks at the Government's Low Carbon Economy Summit watched by Sir Tom McKillop, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Chairman

The Prime Minister said the renewable plans were a green revolution.

But critics warned that the "dash for wind" was a fantasy. At least one new wind turbine would have to go up every day between now and 2020 to meet the targets.

And to guarantee that Britain's lights stayed on 365 days a year, a vast fleet of gas, coal and nuclear power stations will be needed in reserve.

The move is being fuelled by the UK's looming energy crisis.

Within five years, many of the existing nuclear and coal power stations will be shut - leaving a gaping hole at the heart of the national grid.

At the same time, the EU is demanding that 15 per cent of the UK's energy comes from renewable sources such as solar, wind, tide and wave power.

Yesterday's consultation paper says most of that extra green energy should come from an expansion of wind farms - from 2,000 today to around 7,000 by 2020.

Energy companies will be encouraged to build more farms through incentives due to be announced by the Government later this year.

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