Offshore wind needs to be closer to coast

Planning rules for offshore wind farms need to be relaxed for the UK to meet its EU renewable energy targets by 2020, says the Carbon Trust. In a report published today, the Trust argues that allowing offshore wind turbines to be built closer to the shore will cut their cost by £16 billion.

Current constraints mean the next round of wind farms need to be built 70 miles offshore in deep waters. Such sites, however, require 40 per cent more capital expenditure than locations nearer to the coast.

The Trust says that if the government and Crown Estate -- which owns the seabed -- remove site restrictions, the UK could build wind farms generating 29 GW by 2020. By contrast, a single proposed coal plant at Kingsnorth in Kent would generate 1.6 GW.

Without changes, however, the report suggest just a quarter of that 29 GW would be built. "Without urgent action there is a risk that little additional offshore wind power will be built by 2020 beyond the 8GW already planned or in operation," it says.

While acknowleding the scale of the wind farms would be huge, it suggests they would cover just 0.5 per cent of the UK seabed, an area the size of Somerset.

"If we are to meet our 2020 renewable targets we need a dash for wind on a comparable scale to the dash for gas of the 1990s," says Tom Delay, chief exec of the Carbon Trust.

The UK's biggest offshore wind farm is currently being built off the coast of Skegness by Centrica and is due for completion in the next three months.