News

February 04, 2010

Is The UK’s Drive Into Offshore Wind Viable?

By Rue Swabey

On January 8th the UK’s Crown Estate, which owns the seabed, announced the winners under the latest round of offshore windfarm licencing, known as Round 3. Round 1, which was held in 2001, was a “demonstration” round that offered leases for 22 years. Round 2 was held in 2003, and offered 15 projects with a theoretical total capacity of 7.2GW, and fifty year leases for the biggest projects. Round 3 aims to parcel out 25GW of potential wind power by 2020, equivalent to about 25 per cent of the UK’s current electricity demand. But actual generation is likely to be significantly lower than that, as wind turbines generally work at between 30 and 40 per cent capacity. Offshore wind is heavily subsidised.

The Carbon Trust estimates the Round 3 will require up to £75 billion in construction investment. That figure is equivalent to what was spent during the decade when North Sea oil and gas development was at its height. The government has announced that the development of Round 3 will create thousands of jobs. It’s a great claim to make prior to a general election, but as the UK does not have a turbine manufacturing industry it is likely that the jobs will be created elsewhere, unless the...