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UK surges ahead on offshore wind construction
- 12 years ago (2011-07-30)
- Junior Isles
The UK has built more offshore wind power generation in the first six months of 2011 than any other country in the world, accounting for almost all the offshore turbines erected so far in Europe this year.
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Of the 108 offshore wind turbines built off the coastlines of Europe, between January and June this year, 101 were built off of UK shores, according to estimates published by the trade body European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).
Chris Huhne, UK energy and climate change secretary, told journalists that the figures showed how fast the UK was moving in renewable power. "The UK is the undisputed home of offshore wind energy. Our natural resource and competitive advantage mean we have the biggest market in the world. We're blowing away the competition."
"It's part of the low-carbon revolution that's under way in the UK, bringing jobs and growth in new industries and building us a future less exposed to volatile global energy prices,” he said.
Wind energy is now seen as a key construction sector in Europe, since much of the construction industry suffered particularly badly during the recent financial crisis.
Due to the time lag between the number of turbines built and the number connected to the grid, the UK showed less progress than would be expected in adding new generating capacity to its grid – 245 MW so far this year.
EWEA's research shows that the turbines built this year represent only a fraction of the UK's plan for offshore wind farms.
Wind farms constructed, or added to the grid, this year are predicted to be able to provide about 2240 MW of generating capacity for UK. By contrast, when Germany's offshore farms are completed their capacity will only be about one-fifth as much, at 450 MW.
These numbers also fail to capture the number of wind farms that are planned, but are still not under construction, of which there are many in the UK.
In Europe, as of 30 June 2011, there were 1247 offshore wind turbines fully grid connected with a total capacity of 3294 MW in 49 wind farms spread over nine countries.
Christian Kjaer, chief executive of EWEA, said progress had been made on offshore wind but warned about the financial problems still facing the sector. "While we see several positive trends for the European offshore wind power sector we are not home and dry yet," he said.
"We are coming out of the financial crisis but are still facing a potential worsening of the general economic crisis. The number of banks lending for offshore wind farms is steadily growing, although there is a continued need for attracting an increasing number of large institutional investors to offshore wind projects – presently the largest construction undertakings going on in Europe," he said.
EWEA also found that more banks were interested in financing offshore wind farms and said it was "positive" that the European Investment Bank continues to provide funds, and that the UK government is to make offshore wind a priority for the planned "green investment bank", worth about £3 billion, to be set up next year.