The cost of generating electricity from on shore wind has fallen dramatically over the past few years. In the case of onshore wind, a recent report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance made clear that "the best wind farms in the world already produce power as economically as coal, gas and nuclear generators; the average wind farm will be fully competitive by 2016" . In fact, if one takes the price of carbon saved into account, onshore wind farms are already on parity with gas plants. Public subsidy must be proportionate to the maturity and market-readiness of the technology. The Government already recognises that onshore wind is a maturing technology and the number of Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCS) awarded are already declining as a result.
The growth in renewable generation across Scotland and the UK is happening with just a fraction of the public finance support enjoyed by gas, oil and coal. Recent figures by the OECD highlighted that gas, oil and coal were subsidised by £3.63bn in 2010 while offshore and onshore wind received just £0.7bn in the year from April 2010.