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Monday 3 May 2010

UK offshore wind hits milestone 1GW

The landmark first gigawatt (GW) of installed offshore UK wind energy capacity was reached this week as two wind farms off the coast of Britain began generating electricity.

Robin Rigg operated by EON and Gunfleet Sands operated by DONG Energy were the offshore sites where the landmark was reached. The 1GW is spread across 11 wind farms in UK waters, with 336 installed wind turbines providing renewable energy for some 700,000 homes.

Currently, there are over 40GW of offshore wind farms at various stages of development, with over 4GW in construction or with planning consent . The sector is set to provide 150+ TWh of carbon free electricity a year, compared to the UK’s total electricity consumption in 2009 of 374 TWh, creating up to 70,000 ‘green collar’ jobs and attracting billions of pounds in investment. As the Digest of United Kingdom of Energy Statistics for 2009, released last month, has noted, load factors for offshore wind are now on par with UK hydro at 35% and only 5% less than average load factors for conventional thermal generation.

Ed Miliband,Secretary of State at the Department of Energy Climate Change, said, ‘It is great news that we've reached the 1GW landmark. The UK is now the world leader in offshore wind energy generation. We are also set to be a centre of manufacturing for offshore wind. We're creating the right conditions and incentives to maximise the potential of our wind resource so we can create thousands of new jobs and generate our own home-grown, clean, secure energy’.

Maria McCaffery, RenewableUK chief executive added, ‘The UK offshore wind industry has come of age. In the last ten years we have built a brand new world-leading industry sector that will create long term value for this country. In the first quarter of this year alone half a billion pounds of private investment has been invested directly into offshore wind in the UK. The opportunity now for this country is to build on this position of global leadership to develop the industrial and service supply chain to provide the equipment and skills that will embed Britain’s competitive advantage in marine renewables. To have deployed 1,000MW of offshore wind plant in ten years, and with pioneering technology, is a tremendous step forward.’

In related news, an EU funded study by the European Wind Energy Association has determined that the consenting process for wind farms to be built in the UK is much quicker than in most other European countries. It takes 26 month to obtain permission for a wind farm in the UK compared to an EU-wide average of 42 months.

There is also less bureaucracy in the UK, with wind farm developers being required to contact an average of 15 authorities and other bodies to obtain permission, compared to an EU average of 18.

Source: Maritime Journal

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