Power from wind

Wind Farms: eleven UK sites marked for development
Eleven sites around the English, Scottish and Welsh coastline have been earmarked as suitable to house ranks of giant wind turbines.

By Paul Eccleston
Published: 10:34PM BST 04 Jun 2008

It is the latest phase of an ambitious scheme to meet more of the UK's energy needs from natural and sustainable sources.

The government is committed to obtaining 20 per cent of all its energy from renewables by 2020 and offshore wind power has been identified as the key factor in reaching the target.


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The UK is about to overtake Denmark as the world's largest generator of wind power and within five years we will be able to obtain as much power from wind as we do from nuclear plants.

Announcing the potential new sites the Crown Estate - which is responsible for managing the sea bed - said it will play a much bigger part in getting wind farms up and running in time to meet the 2020 deadline.

It will meet up to 50 per cent of the start up costs of new farms by helping developers get through complicated planning processes and with sourcing suitable turbines and getting them hooked up to the electricity grid.

Bidding for the new sites - round three of a long-term plan to increase the number of offshore wind farms - will begin almost immediately and contracts could be signed as early as next year.

If all the new farms are built it will more than triple the 8GW of power being developed offshore under rounds one and two of the scheme to 25GW and 33GW by 2020 which would be enough to theoretically provide enough power for every home in Britain.

Rob Hastings, the Crown Estate's director of marine estates, said "We recognise that the 2020 EU renewable energy target is a major challenge for the UK. It will demand a strategic vision, combining innovation in technology and energy infrastructure with sympathy for environmental concerns.

In partnership with wind farm developers, we will need to establish the best location for wind farms within the programme and gain consensus with key stakeholders to deliver each scheme. :

"We need to be sensitive to other marine users and conservation interests, and we have to deliver all this in the context of worldwide competition and a limited supply of new wind turbines.

Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said wind power would help tackle two of the big challenges facing the country - climate change and energy security.

"The expansion of wind energy is already a real success story for the UK. We will shortly become the leading country in the world in terms of the number of wind farms operating offshore," he said.

"The Government is aware of the costs and supply challenges facing the industry and it's hoped the Crown Estate's investment and leasing programme for round three will provide developers with confidence to make investments much earlier on, like signing grid connection agreements or ordering turbines."

Maria McCaffery, Chief Executive of the industry body British Wind Energy Authority, said: "This is fantastic news for the UK wind industry, with Britain's seas now officially opened for business. This announcement has brought delivery of the 2020 renewable energy targets a great deal closer".

She added: "Wind energy is no longer a minority pursuit. With nearly half a gigawatt already installed and a further 8GW of schemes in the pipeline we are now a mainstream energy supplier."

The head of Greenpeace UK's climate campaign Robin Oakley said: "Offshore wind is a 21st century, frontier technology that can deliver clean electricity to every home in Britain and secure our energy supplies for years to come. Our country could be the Saudi Arabia of offshore wind - and John Hutton knows it.

Instead, he's lost in a nuclear fantasy and flatly refuses to introduce the policies that have delivered huge economic benefits for Germany and Spain, who now lead the world in renewable energy. Britain is sitting on a treasure chest of green collar jobs and clean, renewable energy - now we need to unlock it."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2075531/Wind-Farms-eleven-UK-sites-marked-for-development.html