Wind power has few friends on the political Right. No other industry elicits such protest from the conservative press, Tory backbenchers, and free market economists.

The vehemence is odd since wind generates home-made energy and could be considered a 'patriotic choice'. It dates back to the 1990s and early 2000s when the national wind venture seemed a bottomless pit for taxpayer subsidies.

Pre-modern turbines captured trivial amounts of energy. The electrical control systems and gearboxes broke down. Repair costs were prohibitive.

Yet as so often with infant industries, early mishaps tell us little. Costs are coming down faster than almost anybody thought possible. As the technology comes of age - akin to gains in US shale fracking  - the calculus is starting to vindicate Britain's vast investment in wind power.

The UK is already world leader in offshore wind. The strategic choice now is whether to go for broke, tripling offshore capacity to 15 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.  The decision is doubly-hard because there is no point dabbling in offshore wind.  Scale is the crucial factor in slashing costs, so either we do it with conviction or we do not do it all. My own view is that the gamble is worth taking.

Shallow British waters to offer optimal sites of 40m depth. The oil and gas industry knows how to operate offshore. Atkins has switched its North Sea skills seamlessly to building substations for wind. JDR in Hartlepool sells submarine cables across the world. Wind power is a natural fit.

We live in a world that has just signed the COP21 climate deal in Paris. That implies a steadily rising penalty on carbon emissions. It also implies that those dragging their feet on renewables will ultimately be punished, as the Chinese have grasped.

David Fuller's view

Here is a PDF of AE-P’s article.

Many of us opposed wind farms well over a decade ago because they were expensive, nosy, inefficient eyesores and a devastating Cuisinart for birds.  Yes, costs are coming down rapidly due to size, mass production and especially accelerating technological innovation, unfolding before our very eyes.   

You would not want to live anywhere near these increasingly massive War of the Worlds machines, but they are now considerably more efficient.  Moreover, the evolution of batteries will largely resolve intermittency problems over the next five years.  Celebrate the increasingly important source of renewable energy from wind power but spare a thought for the birds lost and also the disturbance of sea mammals by offshore wind farms.