The Dutch Lose Faith In Windturbines, Comments Please Chris Huhne

New Dutch governement is stopping subsidies to wind power

As Chris Huhantic prepares to make wind power a major electricity generation source for this country with all the dangers that entails for both energy security, and cost, the Dutch are fast losing faith in wind turbines and so called renewable energy sources.

The new Dutch government is cutting back on subsidies for most forms of renewable energy, and ending subsidies for wind power, solar power and biomass

It was probably the huge subsidy allocated to a 600 MW offshore wind park by the previous government that induced the new Dutch cabinet to make some drastic changes in the existing subsidy scheme for renewable energy. In May 2010, the previous government announced that the German wind power developer Bard Engineering will receive a whopping (maximum) subsidy of €4.5 billion from the Dutch taxpayer to build two 300 MW offshore wind parks off the country’s northern coast. The new right-wing government, a coalition of the liberal party VVD and the Christian-Democrats CDA, supported by the anti-islam party PVV, decided they would not make the same mistake. During the election campaign, the new Prime Minister, Mark Rutte of the Liberals, had been cynical about the large government support for wind power.

‘Windmills turn on subsidies’, he had said.
Thus, when on 30 November, the new Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, heavyweight Maxime Verhagen, a Christian-Democrat, unveiled the new government’s policy on renewable energy, it was no surprise that this included a large cutback of green subsidies: from about €4 billion a year to just €1.5 billion. The new scheme is more than a cutback, though – it also aims at a radical overhaul of the existing methodology behind the allocation of subsidies. The plan intends to reward and stimulate “efficient” (cheap) forms of renewable energy, such as onshore wind power, and does not support relatively inefficient (expensive) renewable, such as offshore wind.

Attila the Huhne (H/T Toy Tory) is determined to commit Britain to the expensive insanity of wind power as wind speeds decline and other countries close to Britain doubt their suitability for their energy security.

The big question is why?