UK Gears Up To Kick Start Global Offshore Wind Industry

[jpak]

http://energy.aol.com/2011/12/10/uk-gears-up-to-kick-start-global-offshore-wind-industry/

Ambitious offshore wind targets in the UK could result in the country becoming the world leader in the technology and help accelerate the global industry through lower costs, a British energy minister said yesterday.

"We have to accept that there are some technologies where we can really influence the global price and there are others where we can't," said Charles Hendry, minister of state for the Department of Energy and Climate. "UK offshore is a fantastic example of where the work that we do here will influence the global price. There are other areas, solar for example where the UK market is not significantly large enough to change the price. So we're focusing our resources and efforts on where we can see the change in the pricing structure."

"This is a massive opportunity for a decade of building about 3.5 GW a year worth of offshore wind in this country. It's very rare that in any technology the UK determines whether the world is going to do it or not. But we can do it in offshore wind," said Matthew Knight, director of business development at Siemens Energy.

Hendry also told the Energy Institute's Countdown to 2020 conference in London this week that after decades of underinvestment in its energy sector, the UK faced a greater challenge than any other European country. Of the €1 trillion in investment required by the 27 EU member states, £200 billion of that would be needed for the UK alone. This decade, 25% of the country's power plants were closed, reducing a 20% capacity gap to only 5%, he said.

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[JohnWxy]

1. This is getting interesting. ....recommended!