If all the costs of fossil fuel power generation were detailed in German power bills they would exceed the costs of renewable energy “by a wide margin”, a study by Greenpeace Energy Germany and the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) says.

Currently German power bills clearly outline the cost of the EEG – the support that is channelled to renewable energy and charged to the consumer as a levy – but the costs of conventional fuels are hidden. “State incentives for nuclear and coal are sometimes part of rules that increase the price of power and sometimes part of government budgets. In both cases consumers cannot directly see the full cost in their power bills,” the report says.

In 2012 the EEG levy cost the consumer €c3.59 per KWh, while the report estimates that if there were a similar levy for fossil fuels it would cost €c10.2 per KWh – almost three times as high as the EEG.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just published a report showing that almost 9% of all annual country budgets are spent supporting oil, natural gas and coal industries through direct subsidies, consumer rebates and avoided taxes on pollution. The report estimates that worldwide subsidies to fossil fuels total $1.9 trillion [€1.5 trillion] – the equivalent to 2.7% of global GDP, or 8% of government revenues, the IMF says.

Wind energy is frequently criticised in the media and by some politicians because it receives government support – which is true. But, have those who raise these views ever stopped to think about the enormous sums in government support fossil fuels have received over their lifetimes – and still do as the latest IMF data testifies?

As a means of comparison, in 2011 alone the International Energy Agency estimated that global fossil fuel direct subsidies were worth $523 billion, compared to $88 billion for renewables.

Ed Davey

While debate in the media rages on whether the UK’s green energy policies will raise electricity bills or not, Ed Davey, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, has said that onshore and offshore wind power together cost householders only £18 a year in total, according to a Guardian article.

Moreover, Davey said that wind power is needed for the UK’s energy mix to insulate it from global gas prices: “Global gas price hikes are squeezing households. They are beyond any government’s control. The analysis shows that our strategy of shifting to alternatives like renewables and of being smarter with how we use energy is helping those who need it most to save money on their bills.”

The same article noted that UK government analysis published on Wednesday shows that 85% of the current average UK electricity bill (£1,250/year) cannot be controlled by the government because it is determined by international gas and electricity prices, transmission and metering costs.

Wind power generated enough electricity to power four out of 10 UK homes last week – and that during a freezing March day and at a time when gas prices were at a seven year high.

From 9.30pm last Thursday night for the rest of the night and day, wind power generated 5 GW of electricity consistently over the 24 hour period, meeting over 10% of the country’s electricity needs.

Last week UK gas prices reached a seven-year-high after a pipeline connecting the UK and Belgium was shut down due to a technical fault.

“What this shows is that wind is a stable and reliable source of power generation on the scale we need, when we need it most,” Maria McCaffery, Chief Executive of industry body RenewableUK, said. The news on gas “serves as a timely reminder of the vulnerability of supply and the price volatility of imported fossil fuels,” she added.

Mike Anderson

Estimating how much energy a planned wind farm will produce – the so-called resource assessment – with as much accuracy as possible is vital to gaining financing for that project, but forecasting energy output is fraught with difficulty. We spoke to Mike Anderson, Technical Director at RES, to unpick the issues.

What exactly is resource assessment?

Resource assessment is all about working out how much energy a site selected for a wind farm will produce. It is the process of using available climatological and topographical data to calculate, with minimised uncertainty, the potential energy produced within a site considered for development. The process of undertaking a resource assessment is complex and involves skill and judgement coupled with a firm understanding of numerical models.

Why is it important and who is interested in it?

The economics of a wind farm project are crucially dependent on the wind resource at a site. A robust estimate of the energy production of a prospective wind farm based on a wind and energy assessment is essential in supporting investment and financing decisions for both developers and investors. The more accurate the resource assessment, the more trust financiers will have in wind energy and therefore the greater the likelihood is of gaining finance for a project. Conversely, if assessments made by wind farm project developers differ greatly from the reality, financiers are likely to ask questions. That is why it’s important to work together as an industry to try and improve resource assessment as much as we can – essentially good techniques can improve our access to finance. In June EWEA is holding a technology workshop tasked with delving deeper in to resource assessment, if you’d like to know more, click here.