Giant offshore wind farms to supply half of UK power?

December 10th 2007

A third of our electricity from wind by 2020 is a fantastically ambitious target. In theory we support it absolutely. But it's misguided if the focus on offshore is to the detriment of onshore.

It costs twice as much to generate offshore. It's dangerous to overlook the fantastic resource we have in this country - enough onshore wind to power the country three of four times over, enough to easily reach our target and at no extra cost. By our estimates it will cost somewhere in the region of £40 billion to build the 33 gigawatts of offshore power Hutton is proposing. We could do the same job onshore for £20 billion. We would achieve the same environmental aims, the same reductions in carbon, for half the cost.

Pushing everything offshore is an easy way out, a cop out infact - a way of avoiding facing the noisy nimby minority who oppose onshore wind in this country. Instead of standing up to them and saying this is the reality - this is the way energy is going to be in the future - you placate them with - "it's not a problem, we'll just throw them out to sea!"