Why not site wind turbines offshore?

Why not site wind turbines offshore?

The UK is now the world leader for offshore wind, with 15 operational offshore wind farms. A further 13 projects are being built or have planning consent, while eight more are being considered for locations around the British coast. The world’s largest offshore wind farm, at Walney in Cumbria, has 102 turbines and should provide enough power to meet the demand of 320,000 homes.

 But the urgent need to respond to climate change means that we’ll need to use as many renewable resources as quickly as possible, including both onshore and offshore wind. At present onshore wind is one of the most economically competitive of the renewable technologies. Due to the technical hurdles of offshore construction and connection to the National Grid, the cost of delivered energy from initial offshore wind farms is estimated to be up to twice that from equivalent land-based turbines – although this is expected to fall as the industry matures. There are also other constraints on the development of offshore wind resources including a limited number of suitable locations, new consents procedures and objections from the Ministry of Defence, which are slowing progress at some of these sites.

The offshore wind resource is huge – the Government estimates it could theoretically supply today’s electricity demand 10 times over. But onshore wind is currently the key technology if the UK renewable energy market is to be successful, and if the Government’s target of 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 is to be met.