Energy: Wind Generation
House of Lords
Lord Donoughue (Labour)
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Marland on 15 March (WA 91-2), what information is gathered by the Department of Energy and Climate Change on (1) revenues from wind farm generation, (2) capital costs of wind farm equipment, and (3) the operating life of wind farm generation equipment, when setting the level of renewable obligation support.
Lord de Mauley (Whip, House of Lords; Conservative)
The information gathered by DECC on (1) revenues, (2) capital costs and (3) the operating life of wind farm generation is set out in the Renewables Obligation Banding Review consultation document and accompanying Impact Assessment, which can be found at http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/consultations/cons_ro_review/cons_ro_review.aspx
The revenue assumptions used in our calculations (at page 20) included wholesale electricity prices, revenue from the sale of levy exemption certificates and ROCs (currently 1 ROC per MWh for onshore wind and 2 ROCs per MWh for offshore wind). The capital and operating costs for onshore and offshore wind come from the Arup report (also available at the website above), and are set out in Annex B (page 126) to the consultation document. The operating life of wind farms is assumed to be an average of 23 years for offshore equipment and 24 years for onshore equipment.
The banding review consultation closed on