The Crown Estate, owner of the UK’s coastal seabed, has granted rights to energy companies that could see an additional 6,400 wind turbines generating 32GW from new sites off the UK coast.
The Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Climate Secretary Ed Miliband met The Crown Estate today to announce the deal, which will open up rights to 9 new coastal zones.
The offshore wind industry is worth more than £75bn and could support up to 70,00 cleantech jobs by 2020.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change DECC) and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) also announced grants to support construction of new wind turbine manufacturing facilities in Fife and Teeside.
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Prime Minister Gordon Brown said:
“Our policies in support of offshore wind energy have already put us ahead of every other country in the world. This new round of licences provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity.”
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said:
“Our island has one of the best wind energy resources in Europe and today’s news shows that there’s a huge appetite for capacity to be built here. We now need to make sure we’re poised to harness the potential that appetite brings for business for UK companies and new green jobs. We did it before with oil and gas in the North Sea and we’ll do it again for offshore wind.”
Lord Drayson, Minister for Science & Innovation, said:
“These grants are part of a package of support to ensure the UK – and UK manufacturing in particular – benefits from the innovative market we are creating. The turbines we need have not been designed yet. Our goal is to encourage their design and manufacture on our shores.”
Press notice
Read the full DECC press notice here.
Links
Pre Budget Report 2009 allocates £50m for wind energy
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