News

Wind turbine numbers set to quadruple

17 July - Category: Environment

 

The UK Government plans to force through wind farm planning applications in order to quadruple the amount of wind turbines throughout the UK.

As part of the Renewable Energy Strategy, Government plans to include over 4,000 onshore turbines by 2020 with another 3,000 planned for installation off the UK coastline. This comes after new that an offshore wind farm called The London Array was approved by investors recently.

There are 2,327 onshore wind turbines in Britain at the moment, with an average capacity of 1.5MW - enough to power 840 homes. Off the coast, there are 210 larger turbines, the latest of which have a much larger capacity of 5MW.

The South East, South West, East Midlands, London and the North West english regions have all set targets for installing a combined total 1,310 megawatts of wind turbine capacity by 2010. So far they have installed only 340 megawatts (MW) and have another 66MW under construction.

So far, the South West is performing the worst, producing just 15% of its 2010 target. Despite this underperformance, they have no wind farms currently under construction.

Critics of wind farms point out that turbines rely on an intermittent source of energy and have to be backed up by fossil fuel or nuclear power when there is no wind. They also object to the visual intrusion of many turbines, despite the fact that many plans involve wind farms being a beauty sport.

Dustin Benton, policy officer for the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said:

"Wind turbines need to be sensitively sited, because they are large industrial structures and inappropriate for certain landscapes."

However, with he UK being the windiest country in Europe, yet 3rd bottom in creating renewable energy, lack of wind should not be a problem.

The CBI has also thrown its weight behind the anti-turbine lobby by calling on the Government to focus less on wind power and more on building new nuclear power stations and coal plants with carbon emission-capturing technology. It said Britain was sleepwalking towards an unhealthy reliance on gas for electricity generation if the wind targets could not be met.

As well as just producing energy, the new plans could create up to 250,000 “green” jobs  as Britain increases renewable energy from 2 per cent to 15 per cent by 2020. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said:

"We can lead in the green jobs of the future, making wind turbines, making parts for nuclear power stations."

It is curious to see, despite this bold announcement, the UK's only wind turbine factory is closing with the loss of 600 jobs. The trade union Unison described the news as "criminal," agreeing that the Government should step in to help.

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