Wind power industry brands Tory plans 'idiotic' and 'illogical'

Wind power companies have rounded on the Conservatives for unveiling a "perverse" and "idiotic" manifesto pledge to halt the spread of onshore wind farms.

The party reaffirmed a promise to end any new public subsidies for the wind farms some Conservative MPs say are an expensive blight on the landscape.

The manifesto says wind power can make "a meaningful contribution to our energy mix" but a Tory government would also change the law on new applications so local people have the final say.

"The whole thing is just perverse beyond belief," said Andrew Whalley, chief executive of Renewable Energy Generation, which owns or operates 16 wind farms around the UK and has about 20 plants in development.

"For a government that claims to be the greenest ever and wants electricity prices to be lower it doesn't make any sense," he said, arguing that wind farms in some locations were as cheap as gas plants and supported thousands of jobs.

Onshore and offshore wind farms currently generate about 10 per cent of the UK's energy and surveys show about two-thirds of the public approves of onshore projects, said Maf Smith, deputy chief executive of RenewableUK, the industry trade body.

"So when the Tories claim in their manifesto that they intend to cut carbon emissions as cost effectively as possible, they're being breathtakingly illogical and therefore idiotic," he added.

"They're also putting at risk 19,000 jobs in the onshore wind industry - which could rise to over 30,000 in the next decade under a supportive government.

"The onshore wind sector delivered £1.6bn in investment in the UK last year," he said.

Tuesday's manifesto launch shows clear differences over renewable energy policy with the Labour party, which said on Monday it would create 1m extra green jobs over the next decade and pledged a new "legal target" to remove carbon from the electricity supply by 2030.

However, the Conservatives are also backing a range of green measures, including a push for a strong global climate change deal in Paris at the end of this year.

"At home, we will continue to support the UK Climate Change Act," it says, adding: "We will cut emissions as cost effectively as possible, and will not support additional distorting and expensive power sector targets."

The manifesto also points out that the Conservative-Lib Dem government set up the world's first Green Investment Bank, and trebled renewable energy generation to 19 per cent while boosting energy efficiency in more than 1m homes.

"Overall, this is an anti-green growth, anti-clean energy manifesto that will only find favour with the dwindling bunch of fossil fuel advocates who still donate to the Conservative party and thus dictate their energy policy," Mr Smith added.

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