Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke/EPAPhotograph: Hannibal Hanschke/EPAn a breezy day in May, the Met Office issued a pithy forecast which would prove telling: “Quite windy.” In fact, on 25 May the UK set a record for wind power generation, 19.9 gigawatts – enough to cover more than half of Britain’s electricity needs, or boil 3.5m kettles.
He adds: “Renewable developers have faced renewed pressure to finish projects and get them online while the prices in the market are very very high.” Lorenz says a similar picture has been seen around Europe: “The development of renewables has been held up by economic factors but also regulatory and public resistance to renewables. That has escalated with political resistance, where we’ve seen populist countries come out against onshore wind to get people on side.” European wind turbine orders were down 36% in the three months up to October on the same period a year earlier.
Crawford adds that revenue caps can act as a “negative investment signal” – making the cost of borrowing funds higher. As the industry is dominated by multinationals with projects in different countries, this can convince some companies to simply invest in an alternative market.