Winds of change: A beacon of optimism

The Government claims Britain is ready for massive investment in wind energy, but the renewable energy sector warns there are big obstacles to overcome.

Wind is the new oil and the North Sea will be the new Gulf of Arabia. As the banking sector grinds to a halt and the real economy stutters gloomily towards recession, wind power is a rare beacon of optimism.

The UK has overtaken Denmark to become the world leader for offshore wind energy, the Prime Minister told the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) conference in London yesterday. And the latest batch of turbines installed at the Whitelee onshore farm, being built by ScottishPower, has taken the UK’s total installed capacity past three gigawatts (GW), enough to power 1.5 million homes.


“It is the coming of age of the renewables industry,” Gordon Brown said. “We have known for a long time that Britain has the best wind and wave resources in Europe. Over the next 12 years, the North Sea will become to offshore wind what the Gulf of Arabia is to oil production.”

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