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Comment and Earth

All power to the wind – it cuts your electricity bills

By Jérôme Guillet and John Evans

21 July 2010

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

(Image: Larry MacDougal/Rex Features)

Why is wind power derided as subsidised, inefficient and uncompetitive when the opposite is true, ask Jérôme Guillet and John Evans

ATTEMPTS to discredit wind power often claim that wind turbines need to be subsidised. A last month asserted that each wind turbine in the UK receives, on average, £138,000 in subsidies a year, and that as a result wind-power investors are coining it hand over fist at the taxpayer’s expense.

So are wind farms subsidised? In the sense of direct government support, very rarely. What…

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