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The incident at Whitelee wind farm happened on Friday

An investigation is under way at Europe’s largest onshore wind farm in East Renfrewshire after a 150ft blade snapped off a turbine.

The incident, at about 0200 GMT on Friday, led to Whitelee wind farm, near Eaglesham, being temporarily shut down.

ScottishPower Renewables, which runs the site, said the cause was unknown but mechanical failure and a lightning strike were being considered.

A safety check on all 140 turbines should be completed by Friday.

The damaged turbine was automatically shut down after sensors alerted the wind farm’s 24-hour control room to the problem.

All turbines at the site were then taken offline while engineers began an inspection.

‘Highly unusual’

By Tuesday morning 65 turbines had been inspected and returned to operation.

A full inspection of the wind farm is expected to be completed by 26 March.

Keith Anderson, managing director of ScottishPower Renewables, said: “This type of incident is exceptionally rare and highly unusual.

“However, the safety of our people and the public is our first priority.

“While the investigation into the cause of the incident is ongoing our engineers continue to conduct an internal and external examination of all turbine blades at the wind farm.”

The Whitelee wind farm currently has 140 turbines. Approval has been granted for a further 39 turbines.

The wind turbines, which are built by Siemens, are about 360ft high.

Councillors have approved an extension to a Stirlingshire wind farm despite the recommendation of planning experts to scrap the project.

Officials opposed the building of nine turbines at the wind farm near Fintry because it would have an adverse impact on the landscape.

There were also worries the view from Stirling Castle would be affected.

But 36 letters were received in support of the Falck Renewables scheme, which had considerable local backing.

Seven letters were sent objecting to the scheme.

A spokeswoman for Stirling Council said: “The panel took the decision to grant the application. They went against officers recommendations for refusal.”

The new turbines will be constructed to the north-west of the existing Earlsburn wind farm.

Charles Williams, from Falck Renewables, said the extension would deliver “real economic, social and environmental benefits” to people living nearby.

Climate change targets

He said local communities would share £1,000 per annum, plus income generated from the community turbine.

He added: “Construction is expected to commence in 2011 and take approximately nine months to complete.”

Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford said he welcomed the decision to go ahead with the wind farm.

The SNP politician said: “I am a keen supporter of such projects when they are situated in appropriate locations.

“This will make a significant contribution to the development of renewable energy and meeting ambitious climate change targets.

“It will also mean that nearby communities will benefit directly through additional investment as a result of this project.”

The link between wholesale energy prices and the cost of our gas and electricity bills is more complicated than energy suppliers would have us believe, according to an investigation by energy experts for Which?

EDF was the only company to escape criticism from the housing body

In the past five years, gas and electricity prices have soared by 107% and 66% respectively, largely as a result of ‘market forces’ that are out of energy suppliers’ control – or so we’re told.
Wholesale energy prices

But Which? experts say it’s not simply a case of wholesale prices – the price energy companies pay for the energy they sell to us – going up and energy bills following suit.

Instead, energy suppliers get their energy in a variety of ways. Contracts with energy generators can range from months to several years, and energy is also bought ‘on the spot’ and delivered immediately. The dominant big six suppliers – British Gas, EDF, Eon, Npower, Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern – also generate some of the energy that they sell to consumers.

The Which? Switch energy company satisfaction survey can show you how your energy supplier has been rated for customer satisfaction and value for money.
Energy suppliers should be open

More than 80% of Which? members want energy suppliers to be open about how their bills are made up, especially the link between what consumers pay and what energy suppliers pay for the gas and electricity they sell to us.

But almost 90% also think it’s hard to work out if price changes are a fair reflection of the actual cost of energy – thanks to confusing jargon such as ‘volatile markets’, ‘increased market commodity costs’, ‘continued increases to input costs’, and ‘the soaring cost of raw materials’.
Fair price for energy

The Liberal Democrats recently weighed into the energy prices debate. Shadow energy and climate change secretary, Simon Hughes MP, called for energy bills to reflect fuel costs to ensure that ‘consumers are not ripped off again and again’.

Which? policy adviser Dr Fiona Cochrane said: ‘The low levels of trust and satisfaction shown by our survey of energy companies mean it’s important for us to have confidence that what energy suppliers ask us to pay is fair.’
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Energy bills
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Energy group Scottish Power saw a 7.9% hike in earnings last year despite losing more than 100,000 customers amid the recession, its parent group has revealed.

EDF was the only company to escape criticism from the housing body

Spanish owner Iberdrola said Scottish Power delivered underlying earnings of £1.29 billion in 2009, with the impact of the weak pound stripped out, accounting for 21% of the wider group earnings.

But it said UK electricity customer numbers fell 5.9% to 3.2 million and remained flat at two million for gas, while energy demand among cash-strapped households and businesses fell by 2.7% for electricity and 7.9% for gas.

News of its UK profits rise was slammed as “indefensible” by an energy consultancy, as wholesale prices have fallen sharply in the last year.

David Hunter, an analyst at McKinnon & Clarke, said: “Despite wholesale prices going into freefall, Scottish Power hasn’t cut domestic standard tariffs in almost a year. Failure of the ‘big six’ suppliers to pass on to customers the massive reductions in wholesale energy prices, which they have been enjoying since 2008, is scandalous.”

Annual results due on Thursday from Centrica are expected to show operating profits for its British Gas residential arm of £554 million, up from £379 million in 2008.

British Gas became the first of the major players to lower gas prices recently with a 7% cut for its eight million customers, but Scottish Power has not cut prices since last February, when it reduced average gas bills by 7.5% and electricity bills by 3%.

A spokesman for Scottish Power said profits in the UK were boosted by an 8% reduction in costs due to savings made across its IT operations. This offset a drop in demand from recession-hit customers, the group said.

It also reduced bad debts from customers in arrears by 12% last year as it encouraged customers to pay by secure payment, with 75% now on direct debit or pre-payment meter.

Earnings for the wider Iberdrola group rose 6.3% to 6.82 billion euros (£5.99 billion) in 2009. But the figures do not include results for January, which was one of the highest on record for energy usage due to the freezing weather.

The jatropha plant can grow in soil not suitable for food crops Dave Harvey: Bristol or Borneo?

An application to build a controversial biofuel power station is being considered by councillors in Bristol.

Environmental groups oppose the plant, and the city’s council leader says it is likely to lead to rainforest destruction and food insecurity.

But council officials say there are no good grounds to block the proposal under existing planning law.

It is one of several plants around the UK under consideration; one in Weymouth has already been approved.

The firm applying to build the bio-liquids power plant, W4B, says it will power 25,000 homes.

It would be fuelled by 70,000 tonnes of vegetable oil a year, first perhaps with palm oil but later with jatropha oil.

Critics blame the growing demand for palm oil for rainforest destruction, and say jatropha oil displaces food crops and pushes up the price of food.

But a W4B spokesman told BBC West that they would ensure the fuel was obtained from sustainable sources.

The EU says, if used responsibly, biofuels can reduce carbon emissions and increase energy security.

In the UK, biofuel power stations attract government incentives in the form of Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs), provided the fuel meets EU sustainability rules.

A government spokesman outlined the sustainability criteria, which includes:

• Minimum greenhouse gas savings, compared to fossil fuels, of 35% initially, rising to 50% from 2017 for existing power stations and 60% from 2018 for new installations

• Restrictions on sourcing raw materials from areas that are rich in biodiversity or are considered to be important carbon sinks, such as primary forests

Opponents of biofuels say the criteria imposed by governments will be irrelevant because any crops grown for fuel will simply increase pressure on land around the world and – either directly or indirectly – impact on food or wildlife.

An expert has called for the government’s boiler scrappage scheme to be expanded so more people will be able to benefit from cheap energy.

Gordon Miller, founder of eco homes and sustainable residential development website Whatgreenhome.com, said the speed at which the scheme’s money-saving vouchers have been snapped up highlights its popularity.

He pointed out that this shows there is a demand in eco-friendly home improvement schemes and the initiative needs to be widened to meet this growing demand.

Mr Miller suggested that the scheme should be open to a wider range of boilers, not just G-rated ones.

“Why isn’t the government rolling this out to include boilers that aren’t just G-rated?” he said.

“It is now an equation for the government to do; how much it is going to cost them versus how much saving they are going to make.”

Earlier this week, the government announced that since January, 54,758 vouchers (nearly half) have been taken as part of the boiler scrappage scheme.oiler scrappage scheme.

British Airways has struck a deal to build the first plant in Europe to produce jet fuel from waste matter.

Some 500,000 tonnes of waste will be used by the UK facility each year to produce 16 million gallons of fuel.

Construction of the plant in east London will start within two years. It is set to produce fuel from 2014, creating up to 1,200 jobs.

BA said the plant would produce twice the amount of fuel needed to power all its flights from London City Airport.

It would only account for about 2% of flights from Heathrow, however.

Greenhouse gas

BA argues the plant will cut the amount of waste that is sent to landfill, reducing the amount of methane that is produced.

Methane is thought to be a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

The plant will be built by a US company Solena Group, with BA committing to buy all of its output.

It will be another four years before it starts producing fuel, and it is unlikely to work at full capacity straight away.

The ideal source material for the plant is waste matter that has a high carbon content.

Biofuel creation

The waste is fed into a high temperature “gasifier” to produce BioSynGas.

A chemical process called Fischer Tropsch is then used to convert the gas into biofuel.

Waste products from the process can be used to power the plant as well as supply 20MW of electricity to the national grid.

A solid waste product can be used as an aggregate in construction.

The fuel produced by the plant is certified for use in other countries, but not currently in the UK.

BA says it is confident of getting the certification by the time the plant starts producing fuel, either for use in a blend with traditional kerosene or on its own.

The UK could face power shortages in the years ahead, according to the energy regulator, Ofgem.

The regulator also warns that a significant number of consumers may not be able to afford the higher energy prices they will have to face.

Ofgem says there is “reasonable doubt” about whether the UK’s energy market will be able to deliver sustainable supplies in the coming decade.

The industry needs £200bn of investment, Ofgem said.

Faced with unprecedented challenges we’re looking at new solutions to protect security of supply Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem chief executive

However, Ofgem believes energy companies may need stronger incentives before committing that level of funds.

In its report, Ofgem says the UK’s open competitive energy market could fail to deliver secure, sustainable supplies in the coming decade.

Chief executive Alistair Buchanan told BBC News: “Faced with the unprecedented challenge of carbon prices, the unprecedented challenge of the credit crunch and the unprecedented challenge of maintaining international supplies, we’re looking at new solutions to protect security of supply.”

Among its range of solutions Ofgem suggests that companies should be required to deliver more generation capacity and gas storage.

It also suggests that the industry should revert to a form of centralised market control, which if adopted, would amount to the biggest shake up in the industry since privatisation.

Record high energy bills are on the way following the winter snow and icey cold weather. With the average energy bill up 20% over a year, bill payers need to act now to save money going forward.

Energy bills save moneyAccording to research by moneysupermarket.com, the average household winter energy bill has increased by 20% in just 12 months and now stands at £616. Standard quarterly tariffs are the most expensive ways to pay for energy yet over half of us are still on a standard tariff.

Scott Byrom, utilities manager at moneysupermarket.com, said: “Our research has shown people use 40 per cent of their annual energy consumption over the winter and with this winter bill at an all-time high, many people will be hit with a chunky bill soon.”

He added “The prospect of forking out for a chunky winter bill should be the catalyst to swap to the best tariff for their region and consumption, as well as actively trying to be more energy efficient and reducing the amount of energy they use to save money.”

Switching to the best available online energy plan, and paying by monthly direct debit, can significantly reduce energy bills. Also by paying by monthly direct debit your payments are spread over a 12 month period in more manageable instalments, meaning you don’t get hit with a massive winter quarterly bill.

As well as switching energy provider, there are other ways to reduce your energy consumption, including insulate your loft, turn your heating down by 1 degree, switch off lights and applicances and lower your washing machine temperature.