Miliband forced to pay solar farms to switch off

Telegraph

10 hours ago

British solar farms have been paid to switch off for the first time as sunny days prompt a surge of clean power that could overwhelm the grid.
The National Energy System Operator (Neso), which manages the UK's power grids and is overseen by Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, has issued switch-off orders to solar facilities this year, new research reveals.
Operators are paid to switch off when these orders are issued, with the extra cost added to consumer and business energy bills.
The solar operators claiming compensation are understood to include some of the UK's biggest energy suppliers, such as EDF Renewables and Octopus Energy.
These payments are common for wind farms, which generate more power than cables can cope with on particularly windy days.
Solar farms have always had a much smaller output and were mostly built in the South, where grid connections are good. However, the rapid recent growth of solar farms means they too are now being asked to switch off.
Neso has said such action was essential to maintaining the stability of the UK's power grids. Critics said it was the latest example of consumers facing extra costs to meet Mr Miliband's net zero targets.
Such 'constraint payments' are already common with wind farms because so many have been built in areas such as northern Scotland or offshore, areas without grid capacity to carry the power they generate.
So far this year, constraint payments have cost consumers £650m, according to the Wasted Wind website. The cost is added to energy bills.
Overall 'balancing payments' could hit £8bn a year by 2030 without massive grid upgrades, according to Neso estimates. Such upgrades would also be extremely costly, with consumers liable.
The revelation that solar farm owners are now also claiming constraint payments came from research by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), a charity that specialises in energy data.
It found that five solar farms had been paid a total of £102,500 to reduce output by 3.6 gigawatt hours between February and June this year.
John Constable, the charity's director, said the initial amounts were small but were very likely to rapidly grow, as happened with constraint payments to wind.
He said: 'Britain's energy bills are surging and everyone wants to know why. Our work shows that subsidies are a key cause and constraint payments are a critical and growing factor.
'The UK has been subsidising renewables since 2002 and has spent over £200bn of bill payers' cash – equivalent to nearly £8,000 per household.