Despite the outbreak of Vestas diaries, I felt I had to post on this subject as well, since I'm actively working on a municipal wind turbine project myself, have a background in the energy world, and have a good network of people with comprehensive industry knowledge.

The first thing to say is that the Danish owners are quite clear that if there were decent orders in the UK then the plant would not be closed. This means on-shore orders, because off-shore orders are only just beginning to become "bankable". So while an off-shore project like Sheringham Shoals may be going ahead, being financed by Norwegian state entities, many of the rest in the pipeline rely on bank financing which is not easy to find right now.

The conventional government response in respect of on-shore is - as ever - that "Big is Beautiful" ad therefore that what is needed is massive fields of turbines plastered in high places developed and built by big corporates.  There is a pretty powerful, and reasonably well funded, coalition formed against these industrial scale developments, and frankly I'm not surprised.(continued)