UK Onshore Wind Subsidies: Not Dead Yet

A vote in the House of Lords on 21 October 2015 has, for the moment at least, derailed the Government's proposals to prevent new onshore wind farms commissioned after 31 March 2016 from being subsidised under the Renewables Obligation (RO).

Readers of our earlier posts on this subject (see here and here) will recall that in June 2015 Government said that its proposals would form part of the current Energy Bill.  In July, "grace period" arrangements were promised for those projects with planning permission, grid connection agreements and land rights by 18 June 2015.  On 8 October, Government amendments to the Bill, setting out the details of grace period relief, were  published.  They covered a somewhat broader range of cases than just the "planning / grid / land rights" one.  After a Committee debate on 14 October 2015 in which Lord Wallace of Tankerness and others identified a range of scenarios where they felt projects would, unfairly, not benefit from the