Poverty fears over wind power

Half a million people could be pushed into fuel poverty by the UK’s drive for wind power, the government’s former chief scientific adviser has said.

Sir David King said: “If we overdo wind we are going to put up the price of electricity and that means more people will fall into the fuel poverty trap.”
The UK has signed up to an EU agreement for 20% of power to come from renewable sources by 2020.

Professor King who who served as chief scientific adviser from 2000 to 2007, told BBC Radio 4’s The Investigation that the government is placing too much emphasis on wind power to reach the target and this would mean more people suffering from fuel poverty.

“These are difficult numbers to estimate but numbers around half a million are not at all unrealistic,” he said.

Professor King said he thought that Mr Blair and the other EU leaders did not understand what they were committing themselves to.

BBC