According to the turbine developer, Ms Rudd has spoken in contradictory fashion of her desire to secure a binding worldwide carbon agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris later this year, whilst also reiterating the Tory’s pre-election pledge to end subsidy for onshore wind.
“Amber Rudd’s initial priorities for DECC appear to be completely at odds with each other,” said UrbanWind CEO, Paul McCullagh.
“While she must be commended for showing a real commitment to securing a global climate deal, to follow this by suggesting the complete withdrawal of support for one of our cheapest and deployable green energy technologies seems totally self-defeating.”
UrbanWind also highlights the lack of clarity over what constitutes an onshore wind farm, as opposed to smaller turbine developments, and warns of an industry in disarray without greater transparency.
McCullagh added: “There is a distinct difference between the large scale wind farm, and ‘farm wind’ which offers small scale distributed wind development. The situation is beginning to threaten a descent into farce, as the UK’s significant and growing Feed-in Tariff qualified wind industry is left with a completely unclear future.
“An ill-thought through and rushed ban on all onshore developments would mean that the entire roadmap set out to ensure we meet legally-binding carbon reduction targets would need to be completely rewritten. We urge for greater consultation on this matter.”