On the 10th of April this year Professor Gordon Hughes of the University of Edinburgh submitted a paper on the economics of small-scale wind generation in Northern Ireland as formal evidence to the "Inquiry into Generating Electricity from Renewable Energy” conducted by the Public Accounts Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Professor Hughes gave oral evidence to the Committee on the 22nd of April. A full recording of the whole session, including the evidence of other witnesses, is available here: Public Accounts Committee Meeting Thursday 22 April 2021. Professor Hughes' evidence begins at approximately 1hr 43 minutes into the session.
Professor Hughes' paper given in written evidence is now available for download from the REF website: Small Wind Generation in Northern Ireland.
The evidence provided to the Public Accounts Committee is an extended development of a subject first broached by Renewable Energy Foundation in a blog post published on the 24th of September – "Extreme Subsidies to Small Wind Farms in Northern Ireland: A Bureaucratic Oversight? – which was the subject of extensive media coverage.
Those interested in this subject may also wish to read the October 2020 study of the same general topic by the Northern Ireland Audit Office: Generating Electricity from Renewable Energy, and a study contradicting the Audit Office’s findings, commissioned by the trade body Renewables NI from KPMG, An economic review of small-scale wind in Northern Ireland.
Professor Hughes' study of Northern Ireland wind can also be read alongside his two volume book length study of the economics of wind power in the UK and in Denmark, published by REF in November 2020: Wind Power Economics: Rhetoric & Reality
