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ISSUE 2142 Friday 6 April 2001

Go-ahead for 18 wind farms off the coast By Charles Clover Environment Editor

EIGHTEEN offshore wind farms, ranging from under a mile to nearly six miles off the British coast, were granted leases by the Crown Estate yesterday.

The clusters of up to 30 turbines, each around 200 ft high, will quadruple the amount of electricity Britain generates from wind energy and could affect views from the coast in some parts of the country.

Developers including British Energy, the nuclear energy company, and Shell, now have to go through an untried approvals procedure - offshore developments do not technically require planning permission - before the wind farms can be built. If they are all given permission, after their environmental impact has been assessed under European Union law, the power generated could be up to 1,500 megawatts, enough to heat and light a million homes. Each turbine will be up to five megawatts in size, making them among the largest in the world.

The Government needs all 18 sites to be developed to meet its target of producing five per cent of Britain's energy needs from renewable sources by 2005, and 10 per cent by 2010. The £1.6 billion cost of the new development will mostly be met by the private sector. Some £49 million has been promised by ministers and the industry also expects to benefit from some of a total of £100 million announced for renewables by Tony Blair in a major environmental speech a month ago.

The closest proposed development to the land is 0.9 of a mile off the North East coast off Teesmouth and Redcar. Another likely to be easily visible is at Scroby Sands, Caister, which is 1.4 miles off the Norfolk coast.

Peter Hain, energy minister, said: "This is a new beginning which will take offshore wind from the margins into the mainstream. The rapid development of offshore wind farms is a key element in the Government's strategy for renewable energy. Licences for 18 wind farms is just a start, an extremely encouraging start."

Developers will have to obtain statutory consents from the Department of Trade and Industry, Maff, the Environment Department and the EU. There will be two public consultations, one by the company responsible and one by the Government.

Ann West, of Country Guardian, the pressure group which opposed wind farms in scenic locations, said: "We are quite happy about offshore wind as long as it is really offshore. We are worried about looking at the sunset on the west coast through a thicket of turbines.

"The Pembrokeshire coast, for example, is important. Foot and mouth has shown how important tourism is to the Welsh economy. I would not like to see a situation where offshore wind farms were spoiling the view out to sea but if they are properly out at sea, that is another thing."

Nick Goodall, chief executive of the British Wind Energy Association, said consultations were continuing with Trinity House as to how the wind farms would be lit to prevent ships bumping into them at night.

The cost of providing offshore wind is expected to be around 5p a kilowatt hour, well above energy at 2p an hour produced by more controversial onshore schemes, and will need some Government support. The Government has told electricity suppliers to buy at least 10 per cent of their power from renewable suppliers.

The new tranche of turbines will cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, by 4.27 million tons a year and is estimated to create 8,000 jobs.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001