Extracts from NATTA's journal
Renew, issue 145Sept-Oct 2003

3. More Offshore wind- biggest expansion yet

A new series of offshore windfarms with the potential to power ‘1 in 6 UK households’ was given the green light in July. The DTI released proposals for the next round of offshore windfarms which could supply up to 6 gigawatts of energy by 2010, ‘enough to power 15% of all households in the United Kingdom’.

Patricia Hewitt said: ‘The Energy White Paper committed us to providing 10% of energy from renewable sources by the year 2010, and an aspiration to double that figure by the year 2020. This announcement represents a big step towards meeting our goals. Offshore wind has the potential to provide a significant proportion of the UK’s energy needs. It will help the UK renewables industry to grow, building on our world leading expertise in offshore manufacturing, creating over 20,000 new jobs in manufacturing, installation and maintenance, as the windfarms take shape.’

As we have noted (see Renew 142/3), three strategic areas of shallow waters have been identified by the Crown Estate and the DTI as appropriate for development: the Thames Estuary, Greater Wash area, and off the North West coast. The sites were originally identified in November in the DTI’s Future Offshore consultation, but, the DTI say, they have since been subject to rigorous environmental assessment, to assess the impact of proposed development, before sites could be offered for leasing. Patricia Hewitt has now asked The Crown Estate to invite windfarm developers to tender for sites in all the areas.

This is the second round for offshore wind projects. The first round, announced in Dec. 2000, resulted in 17 proposals from developers, two of which are under construction: at North Hoyle, near Rhyl, and Scroby Sands near Great Yarmouth. In total Round 1 should result in more than 500 turbines, generating 1.5GW- ‘enough to power all the households in Manchester’, the DTI says. Round 2 is far more ambitious in scale, with each farm comprising hundreds- rather than tens of turbines. Larger machines are also likely to be used- perhaps up to 5 MW. The DTI says that the energy produced ‘will be sufficient to power more than 3.5 million households- or almost 9m people, more than the population of Greater London, twice that of Scotland and three times Wales’. Site leases for the second phase will be awarded in the autumn and construction is expected to begin ‘in the next few years’.

Reactions

The announcement won support from Greenpeace and FoE and also caught the attention of the media- with the UK sweltering in a 31C hot spell, global warming began to look very real and the idea of, in effect, installing climate control nationally was too good to miss!

Marcus Rand, the British Wind Energy Associations new Chief Executive, was preditably delighted: ‘This is fantastic news. Successful projects from this round could account for over half of the Government’s 10% target and could be supplying clean electricity to some 4 million households by 2010. This is a win-win for the environment and the economy as it represents a fantastic opportunity to generate clean electricity and thousands of new jobs. What’s more, our opinion poll results show that today’s proposed expansion in the use of wind energy comes with the support of the vast majority of the population.’

The new BWEA opinion poll showed that 74% of bill payers supported the increased used of wind, with 74% backing the Government's aspiration of generating 20% of electricity from renewables by 2020. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, while generally supportative, said it reserved the right to assess each project on merits.

7.5GW of Wind

The new Energy Minister Stephen Timms told the PRASEG annual conference in July that he regarded ‘encouraging the development of renewables as my top priority’

He noted that, with the new offshore leasing consents (see earlier), and further large on land projects, by 2010, ‘we expect to have a total wind power capacity of some 7,500MW in place’.

Meanwhile Patricia Hewitt was quoted on BBC On Line as saying:

'We have got the best wind resources in the whole of Europe and it is crazy that we are lagging behind countries like Germany and Spain and Denmark, when we have the great expertise in offshore developments that we built up with North Sea oil’.