Renewable Energy: Subsidies

(asked on 9th September 2015) - View Source

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate her Department has made of the cost to the public purse of subsidies paid to the (a) solar and (b) wind power industries in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.


Answered by
Andrea Leadsom Portrait
Andrea Leadsom
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 15th September 2015

Solar and wind have received support over the past five years from the Renewables Obligation (RO) and the Feed-in Tariff (FITs) schemes. The cost of the schemes is reclaimed from electricity consumers, not from general taxation.

The cost of supporting solar and wind through the RO in 2010/11 to 2014/15 was as follows (figures not adjusted for inflation):

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

Onshore wind

£398m

£483m

£557m

£756m

£787m

Offshore wind

£254m

£371m

£699m

£989m

£1,108m

Solar PV

£0.2m

£0.1m

£0.9m

£35m

£134m

Solar and some small-scale onshore wind are also supported by the FIT, but FIT costs are not available disaggregated by technology. Total support under FiT in 2013/14 (the latest year for which data are available) was £691m.

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