The United Kingdom’s current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has promised to deliver even more offshore wind power if his Conservative Party are returned to power in the country’s impromptu election to be held December 12, promising to increase the 2030 offshore wind target from 30 gigawatts (GW) to 40 GW.
The latest UK renewable energy auction has awarded 12 projects, including 5.5 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind projects, at record low prices as low as £39.65 ($50.05).
An economy-wide coalition of UK companies and organisations has called on the country’s new Energy Minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, to support the development of new onshore wind farms in an effort to extricate the technology from its current persona non grata status so as to further boost the country’s efforts to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Europe installed a total of 4.9 gigawatts (GW) of new wind energy capacity across the first half of 2019, according to new figures published last week by the region’s wind energy trade body, WindEurope, including a total of 1,927 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind energy.
Scotland’s wind energy output soared in the first half of 2019, according to new figures provided by WeatherEnergy and highlighted by WWF Scotland, generating enough electricity to power 4.47 million homes for the same six months — enough to power all the homes in Scotland and much of the North of England as well.
The next renewable energy auction in the United Kingdom could result in subsidy-free projects awarded contracts as next-generation offshore wind technology will serve to dramatically reduce costs.
The Global Wind Energy Council published its inaugural Global Offshore Wind Report this week, which shows that not only has offshore wind grown at an average of 21% each year since 2013, but that the sector could install an additional 200 gigawatts (GW) of capacity by 2030.
The United Kingdom must begin repowering its aging fleet of onshore wind farms if it is to generate enough low-carbon electricity to meet a looming 18% gap in the country’s total electricity demand by 2030.
Provisional figures published by the UK Government on Thursday show that renewable energy sources generated a record amount of electricity in 2018, increasing by 11.8% over 2017 levels, led by a record year for wind energy generation which provided 17.1% of the UK’s electricity.
RenewableUK, the trade body for the wind and marine energy industries in the UK, launched a new industry group on Monday with the intention of developing a strategy for the large-scale deployment of floating wind technology.
