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.