Although wind energy is a potentially useful renewable energy resource, insufficient emphasis is placed upon optimising its efficiency in operation under UK renewable energy policy and planning guidance. Exaggerated claims are made about its efficiency in terms of actual and likely capacity factors achieved. Noise and health impacts are understated in industry, and some government, literature. Impacts on residential property prices have still not been adequately assessed. The industry claims that the planning system in the UK presents more obstacles than in, for example, Denmark, Germany or Spain, are ill-founded. Underpinning this paper are the capacity factors achieved by wind energy developments in England in 2007, derived from official sources, and the rewards calculated to have been accumulated by developers. These
rewards are largely the result of subsidies provided by business and domestic electricity customers in the UK, a fact that is not widely known - partly because both the industry and the government misleadingly claim, “there is no public subsidy for wind energy”.  Recommendations are made for achieving a more open and challenging planning framework where technical and commercial claims can be properly tested.

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