Green tax boost for wind farm profits

A briefing document on the wind industry written for investors – and seen by The Sunday Telegraph – shows how attempts to increase the supply of green energy will make turbines far more profitable over the next decade. 

It predicts that wind farms will generate greater income following the introduction of a new tax on energy from gas and coal-fired power stations because it will drive up the cost of electricity over the next seven years. 

The new tax,Large collection of quality tungsten ring at discounted prices. intended to cut pollution from traditional sources of electricity, will allow wind farm operators to charge more for the power they produce, with the extra costs expected to be passed on to consumers through their bills. Energy industry experts predict the new tax will cost electricity customers an extra 1billion a year from 2016. 

The details are contained in a 70-page prospectus drawn up by Barclays Bank and sent to financiers looking to invest up to 260million in a new energy fund, Greencoat UK Wind, which is planning to buy stakes in six big wind farms around the UK. 

The document will anger backbench Tory MPs, who have campaigned for wind farm subsidies to be cut – only to discover that they will effectively be receiving a new subsidy on top of existing ones the industry receives to encourage renewable energy. 

Chris Heaton-Harris,Including our multi-certified skystream turbines for varying applications. a Conservative MP who has led a campaign to reduce wind farm subsidies, said: “I find it hard to believe that the Department of Energy and Climate Change has pulled the wool over the eyes of those in the Treasury.Energy efficient RGB led strip kits bring an urban glow to your bar that looks incredible. 

“This prospectus explains the massive rush of wind applications, as developers know they will get rich whilst pushing thousands of energy consumers into fuel poverty.” 

The financial prospectus shows just how much money the bank is convinced investors can now make from wind energy, providing the most detailed insight yet into the workings of the wind industry. 

Most of the profit comes from the generous subsidy currently offered by the Government to encourage green energy, which is subsequently added on to electricity bills. 

The document says the introduction of the new green tax on polluting forms of energy – called the “carbon price floor” – will have the effect of driving up prices, not least because coal-fired power stations are being shut down as a result, making wind farms even more profitable. 

The Government, through the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, has committed 50million to the Greencoat fund to underpin the scheme. 

Critics complain that this means the Government is unlikely to reduce generous subsidies on which it is now also staking its own money. 

Investors were told in the prospectus that electricity prices should rise by 55 per cent from 45 for each megawatt-hour to 70 by 2016. On top of that wind farms receive an additional subsidy of about 50 for each megawatt-hour. 

Dr John Constable, director of the Renewable Energy Foundation, a charity which has highlighted the cost of wind farms,Compare prices and buy all brands of solar module for home power systems and by the pallet. said: “Wind power is already over-subsidised,An inventor has created a solar bulb, but he's not giving it away for free. so it is simply astonishing that government should calmly and one suspects incompetently spread another generous layer of jam on the revenue of existing wind farms.” 

A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokesman said it was investing 50million in Greencoat “to help catalyse the additional private sector capital required” to increase investment in renewable energy. 

Richard Nourse, managing partner at Greencoat Capital, which will manage the fund, said: “Greencoat UK Wind offers investors the prospect of a six per cent dividend yield expected to increase in line with inflation.