£5 billion Wind Subsidy Scandal in Northern Ireland

David O’Neill, Secretary of West Tyrone Against Wind Turbines writes on the latest energy scandal to hit Northern Ireland, this time involving £5 billion wasted on wind farms.

So, Sam McBride is currently the journalistic hero for his reports last week on what was essentially a denial of funding to hard pressed public services that could have done with this people sourced money. The funding went in part to some local land owners, but also to faceless outside investors who have honed their subsidy harvesting skills by re-engineering to smaller rotors or altering outputs to lower levels to make them look smaller.

I noticed however that this was almost immediately on the release of the NI Auditor General’s publication of the investigation into subsidies in the wider energy field. It was good that he reported this, but was he merely reflecting the AG’s (and possibly others) work? Let’s not forget that he also reflected on a Daily Mail report by Sam Greenhill on small wind, who in turn was assisted by the research efforts of Dr John Constable and his team at the REF. Dr Constable is painfully aware of bad energy policy with stakeholder influence acting in union to obfuscate the real and meaningful figures. His report is thanks to the development (hard work) of largely markets based database systems. Also deeply concerned about fuel poverty and security of supply; he keeps his other eye on UK grid data. Incidentally he does not attribute the EWIC to much by way spinning inertia. He is extremely busy but has found time to work with Professor Gordon Hughes, leaving me with no doubt of more revelations to come.