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December 10, 2007 – Vol. 12 No.38 UK Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR): Major Offshore Wind Expansion Enough Power For The Equivalent Of All UK Homes By 2020. UK Energy Secretary John Hutton announced proposals to open up its seas to up to 33GW (gigawatts) of offshore wind energy. "The draft plan I'm setting out today could allow companies to develop up to 25 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2020, in addition to the 8 gigawatts already planned,” said Hutton. “This could be a major contribution towards meeting the EU's target of 20 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.” "The UK has some of the best offshore wind resource in the world, a long history of design, installation and operational expertise in the offshore environment and the skills and manufacturing capability to transfer to this exciting new sector.” "The UK is now the number one location for investment in offshore wind in the world and next year we will overtake Denmark as the country with the most offshore wind capacity. I want to ensure the UK remains one of the best places for renewable business,” he continued.
This proposal would open up the vast bulk of the UK's continental shelf to large scale development. The additional offshore wind development would will be subject to the outcome of a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) now underway. For offshore wind leasing, SEA will cover the UK territorial waters and adjacent areas where the water depth is around 60 meters or less but excluding Scottish and Northern Irish territorial waters. The amount of electricity from renewable sources of all kinds in the UK has doubled to almost 5 percent since the introduction of the UK’s Renewables Obligation in 2002. Current forecasts will see a further tripling to around 15 percent by 2015. The Crown Estate is the landowner of the UK seabed. (12/10/07)
Links: BERR (formerly the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Crown Estate Map of current planned and constructed offshore wind projects in UK
Disclaimer, Forward-Looking or Safe Harbor Statement on original press release: No
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