The Government’s £75 billion offshore wind turbine programme has been welcomed today by green groups including the Green party.
The Guardian reported this morning that, “Round three will be the biggest wind programme announced by the Crown Estate so far and aims to accelerate the deployment of wind energy on a massive scale.”
The Green party’s leader, Caroline Lucas, has welcomed the announcement. She said:
“It is encouraging to see progress finally being made on offshore wind. But the efforts must not stop there.
“The UK gets less of its energy from renewable sources than almost any other EU country, and is one of the highest greenhouse gas emitters as a result. What we need is an energy infrastructure overhaul, with massive investment in diverse renewable sources to slash emissions.”
A Greenpeace briefing outlines that the move is “a huge opportunity to secure a clean domestic energy future.” Britain is currently the world leader in deployment of offshore wind while the Carbon Trust calculates that the UK could seize 45 per cent of the global offshore wind market by 2020, delivering £65 billion of net economic value and 220,000 total jobs by 2050.
Friends of the Earth have also welcomed the announcement but want the Government to be even more ambitious. Renewable energy campaigner Nick Rau said:
“Plans to build thousands of offshore turbines are fantastic news – but the Government must do more to develop the UK’s vast wind energy potential and ensure that Britain reaps the benefits of creating thousands of new green jobs.
The Times cautioned this morning that a £10-15 billion ‘Super Grid’ will “be needed before the country’s electricity network could deal with the huge peaks associated with wind power.”
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6 Responses to “Green groups welcome offshore wind announcement”
harry
madness. governments can’t pick winners.
introduce a carbon tax on CO2 and let the market give us low carbon energy.
you only have to look at the debacle of Spain and solar
Daniel
Shame there is currently only one ship capable of driving in deepwater pylons for windfarms, that it is booked up till 2014, and its sister ship will only be ready in 2015.
Oh, and don’t forget that windfarms need about 80% latency from normal power stations, so even with wind at full capacity it will only provide a small saving on coal/gas/nuclear.
harry
daniel
not sure what you are driving at.
what does 80% latency mean?
when the wind turbines run, that is energy that doesn’t need to come from fossil fuels.
they produce about 20% of their maximum rated output
Rupert Read
Each megawatt of wind capacity costs twice what it did to build 10yrs ago. Why? We’re importing the gear. http://bit.ly/4DyiIZ [Hat-tip Jason Kitcat]
We NEED a Green New Deal, HERE in Britain…
Andrew Roche
Green groups welcome offshore wind announcement http://ff.im/-e1Aua