
Offshore wind could power every home in the UK and provide 70,000 jobs according to the government's strategic environmental assessment (SEA). It finds that an extra 25GW of electricity generation capacity could be accommodated in UK waters as well as the 8GW already built or planned offshore. The total electricity capacity of offshore wind would be 33GW – enough to power every household in the UK and generate a yearly income stream of £8 billion.
The Crown Estate has earmarked 11 further viable areas, based on wind, water depth, connection to the grid, shipping lanes and environmental impacts. The Department of Energy and Climate Change and energy regulator Ofgem are tendering for companies to provide the £15bn of cabling needed to connect new wind farms. Energy and climate change minister Lord Hunt stated:
"Offshore wind is fundamental to delivering our target of 15% renewable energy by 2020, and looking ahead to reducing our carbon emissions by 80%... wind power presents a huge opportunity. We're already the world's number one offshore wind power. With the right support, we can grow the industry even further, supporting tens of thousands of high-value, green manufacturing jobs.”
The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) suggests that 9GW of wind power capacity will be built by 2015, with wind overtaking nuclear in terms of installed capacity in the next four to five years. BWEA insists the government still needs to create a policy framework for wind, facilitate grid connections and ease supply chain pressures – some of the hurdles offshore wind farms face. If annual deployment of wind capacity hits 4GW a year all across Europe, prices for installing wind farms would fall by 20%.


