British Telecom will not become wind farmers

British Telecom has indicated that it will not be spending £250 million on a wind farms. The idea was that by building a series of UK wind farms it could generate about 25% of its own electricity usage, making it that bit more “green” as a telecommunications company. The reason for its decision not to invest wind in wind farms is a little complex, but it is worth examining in detail.

There are not many UK incentives for green energy and of those that exist; those for generation of electricity are the most generous by far. It has always been hard to understand why we should have a “green electricity” policy instead of a “green energy” policy, because electrical energy is almost impossible to store in an environmentally friendly way, whereas heat energy is very easy to store in an environmentally friendly way.