UK govt urged to release ASAP grace period details for wind RO

Trade association Scottish Renewables is calling on the UK government to announce, as soon as possible, “fair and reasonable grace periods” for onshore wind under the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme.

The RO will close to new onshore wind projects from April 1, 2016, instead of 2017 as it was previously planned. When announcing that decision in June, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said there will be a grace period for projects that already have planning consent, a grid connection offer and acceptance, and evidence of land rights. Since then, there have been no details on the grace period.

In the press release on Friday, Scottish Renewables also drew attention to the DECC’s Impact Assessment on the RO change, which shows the UK’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could rise by up to 63 million tonnes because of the early end of support for onshore wind. Under the central estimate in the report, the average annual household electricity bills, meanwhile, will be reduced by just about GBP 0.30 (USD 0.46/EUR 0.41).

“We have consistently argued that this policy can only hinder the UK’s efforts to meet binding climate change targets, and the government has now admitted their decision could increase the UK’s carbon emissions by 63 million tonnes,” said Michael Rieley, senior policy manager at Scottish Renewables.

The RO change is expected to have a disproportionate impact on Scotland, as the country is home to roughly 70% of onshore wind projects in the UK planning system.

(GBP 1 = USD 1.545/EUR 1.364)

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