Factory closure

A GOVERNMENT decision to prematurely end subsidies for onshore wind farms means that the modern Mabey Bridge factory in Chepstow is set to close with the loss ultimately of 125 jobs. The Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd claims, in justification, that it is time to shift subsidies from onshore wind to other technologies that need them more. 
She didn’t say what those technologies were but what is known is that subsidies for the much more expensive offshore wind farms will be maintained or even increased so costs have nothing to do with the issue.
Conservatives also say onshore turbines fail to win public support but what they mean is they are not liked in rural areas with parliamentary seats held by Conservatives and although the government has given the public a veto over wind farms, they will have no veto over the much more objectionable shale gas fracking, still less over new nuclear power stations.
Onshore wind energy provides the cheapest form of renewable energy and when all external costs (such as pollution) are taken into account it is even cheaper than coal and gas. Contrary to what opponents of wind farms say the UK does not have an excessive number of wind farms. 
Germany and Spain have far more and in relation to population so does Denmark. The government’s decision is nakedly political; they want to promote fracking and nuclear energy, neither of which will be owned by the public, as opposed to renewable energy which at least has the potential to be community owned.