Summary: Renewable energy frequently gets a bad press because it explicitly and publicly is the recipient of subsidies, whether in the form of feed in tariffs, as in the case of solar and wind energy, or capital grants, as in the case of newer technologies such as wave energy. In an era of austerity, where different parts of society are competing for a smaller amount of government support, all subsidies should be looked at with a critical eye. What is revealed is that government subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, whether in the form of oil, gas or coal, and the nuclear industry dwarfs that of the renewable energy sector.
