£164 GREEN TAX ON ENERGY BILLS

Scots families face huge hike in cost of heating their homes to pay for SNP’s relentless mission to cover country with wind farms

FAMILIES face paying £164 a year extra on their energy bills to subsidise wind farms and cut greenhouse gas emissions. The figure is higher than expected because ministers failed to spend money on green energy schemes wisely, the National audit Office (NaO) revealed.

Bills are expected steadily to rise over the next four years as the SNP continues its drive for green energy and wind farms.

Scotland has one of the highest densities of wind farms in the world, encouraged by the Scottish Government, which aims to generate all the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Ministers from the last UK Labour Government, including ed Miliband, and the Tory-Lib Dem coalition justified a spending splurge on green energy on the basis it would protect consumers against the rising cost of gas, which is used to heat homes and generate electricity.

But spending watchdog NaO said wholesale gas and electricity prices have fallen and may well be lower in 2020 than they are today. It puts the UK average energy bill at £1,029 in 2016 and expects it to be £991 in 2020.

an NaO inquiry found ministers rushed to give long-term subsidies to onshore and offshore wind farms when the cost of electricity from these sources was very high.

Whitehall also underestimated how much electricity would be generated by wind

turbines. The NAO said it would have been ‘more cost effective’ if the Government had delayed spending on the schemes – which have swallowed up billions of pounds – because electricity costs from wind farms have fallen over the past year.

In Scotland last November, a wave energy company that took nearly £28million of public cash as part of the SNP’s dream to turn Scotland into the ‘Saudi Arabia of marine power’ went bust.

Edinburgh-based Aquamarine Power ceased trading, with the loss of 14 jobs, claiming the economic climate had ‘significantly affected’ its business. The company had built and run two full-scale wave energy converters, called Oysters, at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.

The Tory-Lib Dem coalition set up a system called the Levy Control Framework (LCF), designed to cap the amount spent on wind and solar power that could be added to customers’ bills.

A cap of £7.6billion in 2020-21 uses 2011-12 prices. But the NAO expects the schemes to exceed the cap and cost £8.7billion in 2020-21.

It said: ‘This is equivalent to £110 – around 11 per cent – on the typical household dual fuel energy bill in 2020, £17 more than if the schemes stayed within the cap.’

It said another £54 a year would be added to bills by 2020 to cut the nation’s energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

The schemes include giving subsidised double-glazing to the poor and installing smart meters in homes and businesses.

NAO head Amyas Morse said: ‘A lack of transparency over the LCF and expected future energy bills has undermined accountability to Parliament and consumers.’

In July, Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee warned Nicola Sturgeon to listen to growing concerns about green energy.

The committee demanded that ‘objections are properly heard and considered at the appropriate level within the planning system’. But the Scottish Government signalled its green energy drive would continue, saying it was about striking ‘a careful balance’.

Scotland produces a third of the UK’s renewable power and is home to nearly 70 per cent of onshore wind schemes.

The Scottish Government has shunned nuclear power. New figures from WeatherEnergy show wind turbines generated enough electricity to supply, on average, 76 per cent of Scottish households in May. But that plummets when there is no wind.

Scotland receives power from south of the Border on around one in every five days, compared to one in six in previous years.

In the summer, the GMB union said one in eight days had been a ‘low wind day’ in the previous year, meaning turbines in the UK produced only 10 per cent or less of their capacity.

The UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said efforts were being made to reduce subsidies for green energy, such as cutting payments to households which generate electricity through solar panels.

A spokesman said it had saved £520million, adding: ‘Our top priority is ensuring that families and businesses have a secure, affordable, clean energy supply.’