RenewableUK stresses wind's low cost after energy bill passes parliament

The UK Energy Bill, which provides for the closure of the Renewables Obligation (RO) support regime for new onshore wind in Great Britain, has concluded its passage through Parliament.

Industry body RenewableUK described this as a "significant moment" for UK energy policy and called for finding a way to tap into onshore wind as the cheapest power generation option.

"The Government has said that in the future the UK’s electricity will be generated by gas, nuclear and renewables and not from coal. Onshore wind is now the cheapest of these options," said RenewableUK's chief executive, Hugh McNeal. "With the pain of the Energy Bill finally behind us, we need to look forward and find sensible ways to take advantage of wind power to ensure consumers’ electricity bills are as low as possible," he added.

The body cited a number of reports showing the low cost of wind, including a October 2015 analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, according to which onshore wind is cost-competitive with both gas-fired and coal-fired generation, once carbon costs are taken into account, in the UK and Germany.

The bill, which was introduced in July 2015, will now become a law. The latest amendment to it, seeking to broaden the scope of the grace period so that certain projects can accredit under the RO, was on Tuesday defeated in the House of Lords.

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