Whilst the recent windy weather seems to have calmed this week, the debate around wind energy rages on in the media. This morning Business Green reported that wind power hit record levels over the New Year period, supplying 5.3 per cent of UK electricity from December 1 to January 5. In contrast, a report released by Civitas, argued that wind power is ‘inordinately expensive’ and claims that gas back-up during periods of no wind could actually increase CO2 emissions. The Civitas report was picked up by the Telegraph and Daily Mail, and The Guardian is running an online discussion investigating the claims.

Critics have often argued that wind power cannot replace conventional power sources since these still need to be available for when the wind isn’t blowing - and these are expensive to keep in reserve reducing overall energy efficiency. In essence, the Civitas report is more of the same and chooses to ignore a lot of key research on the costs of intermittency.

The performance of wind farms has improved massively, the costs have reduced and as the technology continues to evolve, efficiency will keep on increasing. A report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance suggests that "the best windfarms in the world already produce power as economically as coal, gas and nuclear generators; the average wind farm will be fully competitive by 2016". In fact, when one takes the price of carbon into account, the average wind farm is already as economic as gas power.

The issue of intermittency is one which is widely recognised by experts as being manageable (including the independent Committee on Climate Change that advises Government) and one whose significance is outweighed by the huge potential of the UK’s renewable energy resources.

Perhaps the most fundamental flaw in Civitas’s argument is that they completely ignore the reality that wind power is best deployed in partnership with other renewable technologies, such as solar and marine power. Our future energy mix is not just about utilising any one technology, but using a range of different resources to harness the huge renewable energy potential of the UK.

Even then, there are a range of options to deal with intermittency, including greater interconnection to Europe, giving people the ability to use their energy differently and short term power storage. The Committee on Climate Change’s Renewable Energy Review, outlines some of these methods and suggests that cost-effective management of intermittency is possible. The Renewable Energy Report concluded that even for shares of 65% renewable electricity by 2030 and 80% by 2050, the cost of managing intermittency would be equivalent to 1p/KWh of additional renewable generation.

The Civitas report underestimates the benefits of additional interconnection with Europe. The European Climate Foundation Roadmap 2050 report found that greater interconnection could reduce the amount of gas back-up required by some 35% to 40% in a high renewables system. The analysis by Garrad Hassan in WWF’s Positive Energy Report also showed that greater interconnection between the UK and Europe could reduce the amount of gas back-up plants required in the UK by up to 50%.

Of course, here at Good Energy we know from our generators survey that if people have a more direct relationship with the energy they use, then they tend to change the way they use it. As well as more interconnection with our European partners, a more local approach to the way we generate power, literally putting power in the hands of people, makes managing demand much easier because people are less likely to use electricity all at once.

The key is not to depend on wind power alone, the UK will have to utilise a mix of different generation technologies to meet its renewable energy targets. We believe that as part of this, onshore wind has an important role to play.