Why the Conservative approach to wind farms makes no sense

In truth, the news that the UK Government will end the Renewables Obligation for onshore wind a year early does not come as a huge surprise. It was a matter of when, not if.

But, even if it was just a matter of when the decision would come, the question of why it has come is still unclear.

It is a curious move and unpicking it is not easy.

For a start, and most obviously, given the risk posed to the UK and to the world by climate change, it is difficult to justify cutting support for green technology.

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If you are concerned over the environment, you should probably worry about any move that stunts the development of renewable technology.

The Tory is response is that we now have enough onshore wind.

Justifying the decision, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd said: “We want to help technologies stand on their own two feet, not encourage a reliance on public subsidies."

Ignoring the fact that all energy receives a public subsidy, there is no doubt the decision will make hitting renewables targets harder, with research from the Committee on Climate Change showing that substituting offshore wind for onshore wind would increase the costs of decarbonisation by an estimated £900m per year by 2030.

But that is not why the move is surprising.

The argument for green energy is not one based entirely in environmentalism, but in economics – assuming you believe environment and economy are separate in the first place.

Renewable energy is an area where the UK, and Scotland in particular, holds a comparative advantage over other countries.

It is a huge economic opportunity, with Scottish Renewables estimating the decision could mean £3bn in lost investment.

Beyond that, the move appears legally risky, given that many of the projects already in existence made commitments on the basis of the support they were supposedly guaranteed until 2017. In fact it could conceivably leave the UK Government facing a judicial review over the decision.

As Scottish Government energy minister Fergus Ewing put it: “It is not the scrapping of a ‘new’ subsidy that was promised but a reduction of an existing regime - and one under which companies and communities have already planned investment.”

The only way the decision could be justified is that the Tories just really do not like how wind turbines look. But then are they worse than other energy stations?

It is a weird move because investment in renewables should appeal to the 'party of business'. Like holding a referendum over the UK’s membership of the EU, this is a very strange decision for the Tories to make.