To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much he has paid in compensation for non-production to wind farms in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12.

The Government have made no payments to wind farms in compensation for non-production.

In order to ensure the secure operation of the electricity system, National Grid takes over a thousand actions each day to balance electricity supply and demand, including paying generators of all types to alter their output. The vast majority of these payments are made to fossil fuel generators, rather than wind farms. National Grid has advised that details of all Balancing Mechanism payments are published at:

www.elexon.co.uk and

www.bmreports.com

The Renewables Obligation (RO) is currently the Government's main financial incentive for large-scale renewable electricity, including wind power. This requires supply companies to source a specified and annually increasing proportion of their electricity sales from eligible sources of renewable energy or pay a penalty. The RO is a generation-based subsidy, meaning support is granted for each MWh of electricity actually generated. A wind farm will therefore receive support only when it generates.