Ms Keith said that while fishermen supported the aim of lowering carbon emissions, the INTOG consultation was being “rushed through with scant attention to detail”. “The whole process should be slowed down so that the industry can gather and fully assess fishing data from these areas,” she added.

Offshore Wind UK

Ronnie Alexander was found lying in the snow in January 2018, and later died in hospital from hypothermia, a court was told.

Injury UK

Some coal and gas power stations in Britain were paid double the price of exchange-traded electricity to help plug a gap left by a drop in wind generation on Monday. ...U.K. gas prices are more than three times higher than at the start of the year, as imports from Russia to Europe slowed, and periods with low wind will only increase dependence on the fuel. 

Energy Policy UK

The components – weighing a combined 126 tonnes – fell from lifting equipment during planned maintenance work, the developer stated. Some of the turbine components have broken up and debris has come ashore.

Offshore Wind Safety UK

Debris from an offshore wind farm caused by a "disappointing" maintenance work error could be widespread, an operator has warned.

Offshore Wind Safety UK

Craig Mackinlay, the leader of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of Conservative MPs and a member of the public accounts committee, warned that if the committee had significantly overestimated the amount of power that turbines would generate, significantly more back-up power could be required from more reliable sources. He said: "These predictions appear somewhat fanciful. The Climate Change Committee seem to be looking at the whole project through rose-tinted spectacles to try and minimalise the unpalatable costs of this whole enterprise."

Energy Policy UK

Ministers are at the centre of a ‘conflict of interest’ row after raking in millions of pounds from the expansion of wind farms. The Scottish Government has previously been accused of ignoring the protests of local communities to grant permission for hundreds of turbines. Now new figures indicate how much the Government and its agencies have profited from overruling objectors.

Taxes & Subsidies UK

Campaigners fighting against a controversial windfarm fear the council has “failed” to protect a “precious and unique” landscape. The local authority has told the Scottish Government it cannot provide a formal response on plans for turbines at Mochrum Fell near Corsock because the planning applications committee hasn’t made a decision.

General UK

Matt Hancock said: “Lucy and I have been working very closely on this proposal and despite my view being that we need renewable energy, from the moment I saw the map, I was not in favour of this project. “My immediate concerns are the overall impact on the environment and local area, the size of this material change and the batteries, which can be problematic in terms of safety when used on this scale.” He added: “The fact that Sunnica have put a project of this size forward and then not turned up to this meeting is arrogant.”

General UK

A hub, three 61-metre blades, and blade clamping tool have fallen into the sea during major component exchange at the Ormonde offshore wind farm in the UK, with majority of the parts and tools now resting on the seabed and debris from one broken blade reported to be on the sea surface.

Safety Europe UK

UK ministers will put nuclear power at the heart of Britain’s strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in government documents expected as early as next week, alongside fresh details of its funding model.

Energy Policy UK

Experts in Scotland found exposure to electromagnetism triggered 'behavioural and physiological responses' in around 60 brown crabs at the St Abbs Marine Station. ...The cables for offshore renewable energy also emit an electromagnetic field that attracts the crabs and causes them to become stationary, which affects breeding and migration, according to the team. 

Impact on Wildlife Offshore Wind Transmission UK

Cllr Andrew Hinchliffe feared beautiful views, such as those enjoyed from Llanfairfechan, could be "destroyed". “From where we are now, we can only see the present turbines over Llandudno, which is very surprising, but these will be double the height and extending right across the vista, which I find very difficult,” he said. “I think this is far too much. If they were going to build this, surely turbines could be much further out and less intrusive on our landscape.

Impact on Views Offshore Wind UK

Plans had already been approved for the six turbines being built by French Energy giant EDF, but a new application was submitted after they decided to increase the height of the turbines from 455ft to a new tip height of 491ft - more than twice the height of Edinburgh’s Scott Monument and almost the height of the Blackpool Tower.

Impact on Views Impact on People UK

Local authority officers warn of impact on tourism spending and views from the coastline and Llandudno Pier

Impact on People Tourism UK

Energy giant SSE said its renewable assets produced 32% less power than expected between April 1 and Sept. 22 thanks to historically dry and low-wind conditions. This equates to 11% of its full-year output target.“This shortfall was driven by unfavourable weather conditions over the summer, which was one of the least windy across most of the UK and Ireland and one of the driest in SSE’s Hydro catchment areas in the last seventy years.

General UK

Dr John Constable, the director of REF, said: "Uncontrollable and heavily subsidised generation such as wind-power has made the UK electricity system into a costly and dysfunctional joke. "High winds, low winds – whatever the weather, the consumer suffers. It's almost the only thing about wind that is reliable."

Impact on Economy Energy Policy UK

While grid operators plan for intermittency in wind power, the latest drop coincided with a Europe-wide squeeze on natural gas, nuclear outages and a fire at a key power interconnector with France. Britain has already turned to coal-burning stations to fill the energy shortfall, but there's a gap emerging there. By 2024, there will be no more coal stations left, and five of the UK's eight nuclear plants will also be halted permanently.

Energy Policy UK

The U.K.’s offshore wind sector had been a success story of the energy transition, drastically cutting emissions by rolling out 24GW of wind power over the past decade—enough to power 7.2 million homes. But as wind slowed and the price of carbon credits rose to record highs, the electricity market has experienced extreme volatility. “We have very steep targets for increased renewable energy penetration, and the growing problem alongside of that is this fluctuation in prices that we’re seeing,” says Finlay Clark, an offshore wind analyst from Wood Mackenzie.

Energy Policy Europe UK

Energy prices have surged to 11 times above normal levels – a fresh record high – as a crunch in gas supply, low wind speeds and power station closures pile unprecedented pressure on Britain’s grid. ...Adam Lewis, partner at energy trading company Hartree Solutions, said some respite may come on Friday, when wind generation is forecast to pick up from about 1.5GW to 8GW, but added that forecasts are notoriously inaccurate.

Energy Policy UK