Anti-wind report dismissed by UK

The UK has largely dismissed a report from the world’s biggest wind power producer, which calls wind farms expensive and inefficient.

The report from the German Energy Agency says it will cost Germany around 1.1bn euros (£700m) to connect its wind farms to the national grid, which is a necessity if the country is to reach its target of 20% of electricity from renewable sources by 2015. It goes on to say money would be better spent on achieving the same reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by installing filters on fossil-fuel power plants.

With 15,000 wind turbines, Germany’s wind farms outnumber those of any other nation. The UK is, however, developing wind power at the world’s fastest rate and the government hopes to generate 10% of energy from renewable sources by 2010.

Although anti-wind-farm groups in the UK have welcomed the report, the Department of Trade and Industry said it merely emphasised the need for energy efficiency – an issue that the UK has already concentrated on for some considerable time. The DTI said it was important to combine and balance energy efficiency with renewable energies and stressed that the UK was in a different position from Germany.