A wind turbine in every garden? Ed Miliband has lost the plot

UK energy secretary Ed Miliband has had a new idea. He wants to make it easier for homeowners to install wind turbines in their gardens.

This is all part of his plan – announced last week in the ‘Onshore Wind Taskforce Strategy’ – to ‘unlock’ 27GW to 29GW of wind capacity by 2030. And how does he hope to do this? By holding a consultation over whether to relax planning rules governing the construction of turbines on commercial and residential properties, in particular semi-detached homes (detached homes don’t need planning permission for small wind turbines).

Even by Miliband’s standards, this attempt to spread the fight for Net Zero to millions of middle-class householders is ludicrous. His dream of wind turbines in back gardens across the land brings to mind Chairman Mao’s attempt to install small blast furnaces in every communal backyard during China’s Great Leap Forward.

Just think about what Miliband’s Green Leap Forward entails. In order to get close to Miliband’s wind-capacity targets, it will require ferrying and craning wind turbines into the gardens of roughly a quarter of Britain’s homes. They will then have to be wired up to the grid, which will only be able to draw power from the turbines when the wind is blowing. Each installed turbine could cost between £10,000 and £20,000 in upfront costs and involve three to four days of installation. And afterwards, expect a lot of complaints from neighbours about the view and the noise once operations begin.

In the ‘Onshore Strategy’, Miliband claims that ‘every turbine we build’ will boost Britain’s energy independence. Taken together, they will supposedly allow us to ‘take back control from the petrostates and dictators’.

When Miliband talks of relying on ‘petrostates and dictators’, one assumes he’s talking about oil and gas from the Middle East and Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Yet as it stands, a negligible portion of Britain’s gas imports come from countries outside Norway and the US. After those two, six per cent comes from Qatar and four per cent from Peru. In other words, Britain’s supply of gas is hardly subject to the whims of foreign despots.

Even if it was true that Britain is too reliant for its energy supplies on ‘petrostates and dictators’, it’s really not clear how building wind turbines in gardens, or on roofs, would provide the energy Britain needs. There is certainly no real financial incentive for households to turn themselves into renewable-energy suppliers.

A standalone domestic wind turbine typically generating 3kWh to 15kWh per day costs £7,000, while a unit generating 25kWh can cost £70,000. An average house requires around 8kWh of electricity a day. So, with a standalone turbine, one might be able to export a few unwanted kilowatt-hours back to Britain’s run-down electricity grid. And in return for unloading, let’s say, a generous excess of 7kWh on to the grid, a home will earn little more than a princely £1 a day, under the official Smart Export Guarantee scheme.

Moreover, small inshore wind turbines really aren’t very efficient. Over London, for instance, wind speeds typically reach about 10mph. In the blustery North Sea, they reach on average 20mph. This doubling of wind speed multiplies the electricity-generating capacity by a factor of eight. The output from a modest household rig in an urban garden is miniscule compared with the output from a tall, industrial-scale turbine located offshore.

But then for Miliband and his dwindling band of allies, it seems small will always be beautiful. In his fantasy world, suburban Britain will be awash with little wind turbines and basking in the self-righteous warmth of a Net Zero future. In the real world, however, a few people might well erect a turbine on the front lawn, but this will do little to help Britain with its energy challenges. And we don’t need a consultation to confirm that.

James Woudhuysen is visiting professor of forecasting and innovation at London South Bank University. He tweets at @jameswoudhuysen