Wednesday 6th May 2015

Wind Watch

Wind Watch is published every Monday and Friday.

In the meantime, you can catch up with our analysis on this week’s UK election, which we originally published last month.
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This time next month the UK election will be over and investors will be able to get back to planning their investments in the UK.

At least, that’s the theory. The problem is, this is one of the most difficult UK general elections to predict in the last 100 years, which is mainly due to the growing influence of small parties.

We are likely to see a coalition government again and so, even after the votes have been revealed, the talks between the parties will continue with compromises undoubtedly having to be made. These parties would all bring very different energy policy priorities into a coalition government. It is difficult to see how wind will fare.

But let’s try.

Neither of the two main parties — the Conservatives or Labour — is set to win an overall majority. This is good news.

The Conservative Party has committed to a ban on subsidies for all new onshore wind farms if it wins an outright majority; and pledged a referendum in 2017 on whether the UK stays in the European Union. Exiting the EU would weaken the UK’s international renewable energy targets and its business ties with Europe.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party is a bigger supporter of renewables, but is also regarded as being more anti-business. It has pledged to freeze the prices...