BOOMING UK WIND

Offshore Farm Pushes U.K. Wind Power Past 5 Gigawatts
Alex Morales and Marc Roca, September 26, 2010 (Bloomberg News)

"Britain’s capacity to generate electricity from the wind passed 5 gigawatts, enough for 2.7 million homes, as Vattenfall AB opened the world’s biggest offshore turbine farm southeast of England.

"The 300-megawatt farm near Thanet means the U.K. has 1,341 megawatts of installed offshore wind capacity, more than the rest of the world combined…Britain also has 3,715 megawatts of onshore wind…Wind power now accounts for 4 percent of U.K. electricity consumption. Offshore facilities play a ‘make-or-break’ role in the U.K.’s goal to derive 15 percent of energy from renewables by 2020…"

click to enlarge

"…[T]he growth of the offshore industry…[is expected to] create jobs as companies including General Electric Co., Siemens AG and Clipper Windpower Plc plan and build turbine plants in the U.K…[To advance such economic benefits, UK wind advocates want] the government to protect from spending cuts 60 million pounds ($94 million) earmarked to upgrade ports…[even though offshore] turbines are at present about three times more expensive to erect and connect to the grid per megawatt…"

The key to growth is having infrastrucutre in place; for offshore wind that means ports. (click to enlarge)

"The Vattenfall [offshore] farm was built at a cost of 900 million- pounds ($1.6 billion), and includes 100 Vestas Wind Systems A/S V90 wind turbines…

"…[T]he goal for onshore wind is to reach an installed capacity of 13 to 14 gigawatts by 2020. For offshore wind, farms with 4 gigawatts of capacity have planning permission or are being built and in January, the government awarded licenses for 32,200 megawatts…"