UK continues to lead global offshore wind development

The United Kingdom leads the world in offshore wind energy development. In 2013, UK offshore wind energy sector increased yet again, and it is estimated that UK now covers 52% of global offshore wind energy market.

In the last seven years, from 2006-2013 offshore wind power installed capacity increased by 42%. The most recent estimates suggest another growth of 16% by 2020.

The value of UK offshore wind energy market is rapidly growing. The current investments of around £2 billion is set to increase to £5 billion in 2020.

Offshore wind technologies are becoming more and more proven though costs are still twice the amount of their onshore counterparts.

Siemens is the UK's market’s leader for global offshore wind turbine cumulative installations, by being practically responsible for almost all new country's installations in 2013.

Wind energy is one of the top energy sources in United Kingdom, accounting for approximately 22% of total UK's electricity in August 2013. If everything goes according to a plan, offshore wind energy could become major renewable energy source that would be of great help in achieving UK's renewable energy targets.

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Offshore wind energy in Britain in numbers

Britain leads the way in offshore wind energy development on global scale by accounting for more than half of total global offshore wind installations, 3,689 megawatts, as compared to world's total of 6,930 megawatts.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change estimates that country will reach 10 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2020.

In order to achieve this goal, offshore wind industry will have to significantly cut its costs,  and the British government has already set a goal of reducing the costs to 100 pounds ($167) a megawatt-hour by 2020, from the current 147 pounds. Taking into account current state of development and environmental issues that will ahve to be taken care off in the process, this goal looks difficult to achieve. Of course, offshore wind industry is still industry in its nascent phase so there is certainly a plenty of room for improvement.

The future costs will be difficult to decrease because new offshore wind energy projects tend to be further from shore and in deeper waters which increases construction costs. Even US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz recently said that offshore wind projects still remain too expensive.

UK's government has already set the incentives for offshore wind through 2019, with the hope to stimulate clean-energy jobs and give economy a boost.

In the last three months British utilities have canceled as much as 5,760 megawatts of planned offshore wind capacity.

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The largest offshore wind farm in UK reached full workload

The largest offshore wind farm, the UK's London Array,  constructed around 20km off the coasts of Kent and Essex on a 245km2 site, has now reached full workload after the final turbine was commissioned a couple of days ago.

The 175 installed turbines are now exporting power to UK's grid, the 630MW first phase of the London Array is expected to produce enough green electricity to power nearly half a million homes a year. This output is enough to provide clean electricity to power approximately half a million UK homes. It has been also said to reduce climate change causing CO2 emissions by over 900,000 tonnes a year.

The second phase of the construction is also a possibility, and if this gets green light it would add enough capacity to bring the total to 870MW.

UK, the global offshore wind energy leader, doesn't plant to stop here as there are variety of other large offshore wind energy projects being developed in UK waters. These include areas such as Teesside, Gwynt y Mor off the coast of North Wales and Gunfleet Sands off the Essex coast

UK needs to keep momentum in order to maintain its lead in offshore wind energy development. Offshore wind energy is really the Britain's only ticket to remain competitive in global clean energy race.

Offshore wind energy will not only help offset UK's carbon emissions, it will also give big boost to economy in form of new jobs (construction and maintenance). The recent reports claim that offshore wind energy industry could create more than 75,000 new jobs in Britain till the end of this decade.

A lot of it, though, will depend on the Energy bill, the vital legislation that is going through the Parlament. The UK government needs to ensure the long-term stability for UK's wind energy development, beyond the 2020 because in these uncertain economic times potential investors want long-term safety.

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UK needs wind for environment and future energy security

Many of old coal and nuclear power stations in United Kingdom will go retired in the next decade meaning that the governemnt will have to find the way to ensure future energy security for the upcoming years. From the current perspective wind energy seems like one of the most logical options unless clean coal technologies achieve the desired level of cost-competitiveness.

With the climate change threat looming over entire globe wind power looks more preferable to clean coal technologies. The last year independent poll said that the two thirds of people in the UK are supportive of wind energy and want more of it.

Wind energy is one of the most cost-effective renewable energy sources, the one that can compete with fossil fuels in terms of total costs. More wind power means thousands of new green energy jobs, giving country the chance to kickstart its economy.

UK currently leads the world in offshore wind energy development. The global offshore wind power continues to grow both in popularity as well as the capacity, meaning that UK has with its offshore wind farms nice deck of cards to competitively enter global clean energy race. Of course, offshore wind farms are still connected with high construction and maintenance costs but they are also far more efficient as compared to the wind projects on the land because of more powerful and frequent winds that blow offshore.

The recent RenewableUK says that there are currently 4,366 turbines in operation in the UK providing 8.2GW of power and further 7,843 turbines that have been approved to be built. This means that the British government is certainly dedicated to future wind energy development.

Wind energy still has significant number of proponents in United Kingdom. The proponents of the wind energy question wind especially in terms of intermittency and claim that wind doesn't blow steady enough to be considered as a reliable source of energy. Though there is some truth to these claims wind energy still requires a chance to show its total worth, not just because of future energy security but also because of the urgent environmental issues such as climate change.

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Wind energy jobs in United Kingdom

Wind energy industry is rapidly growing in United Kingdom. If UK maintains its current growth in wind power capacity, wind turbines will satisfy 10% country's electricity needs by 2013. Therefore, it comes to a very little surprise that wind energy sector is currently the fastest job creator in United Kingdom. According to the recent study by RenewableUK in the last three years UK wind industry experienced growth of 91% in terms of new wind energy jobs.

In 2007 UK wind industry employed around 4800 people, and in 2010 this number increased to around 9200 people. At the end of 2012 the UK wind energy industry employs around 12,200 people in full-time jobs.

Though offshore wind energy is currently receiving plenty of popularity the majority of UK wind energy jobs still refers to large-scale onshore wind with 56% of total wind energy jobs. However, the offshore wind energy industry employed 45 % more people in 2012 than in 2010.

UK wind industry is currently employing more people than UK coal industry. At the end of 2011 the UK coal industry employed around 6000 people. For comparison purposes, a hundred years ago coal industry employed around million people in UK.

It has been estimated that UK offshore wind energy sector has the potential to employ around 70,000 people by 2020.

Only 7-8% of the total number of people employed in UK wind power industry is employed in small-scale wind though this percentage is expected to significantly grow in years to come.

UK currently has around 6.9GW of total operational wind farm capacity. With the project currently being in development phase, this number should increase to 13.5GW by the end of the next year. One MW of capacity is roughly enough to power around 650 average homes in UK.

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