World outlook
came from former Prime Minister Boris Johnson who talked of turning the UK into “the Saudi Arabia of wind”. “We believe that in 10 years’ time offshore wind will be powering every home in the country, with our target rising from 30GW to 40GW,” Johnson said. The UK’s former PM might be notorious for truth twisting but there are cold hard facts behind his assertion that the UK could become a wind energy superpower. Widely regarded as having the best location for wind power in Europe, encompassing 11,000 wind turbines with a capacity of 25GW – the UK has the sixth-largest wind capacity across the globe. Britain’s platform for wind energy generation is enviable, then, but its stated ambitions aren’t yet matching its output. One primary reason for that is political. Since 2015, the UK government, led by David Cameron has effectively outlawed onshore wind in England, placing an enormous burden on offshore wind generation. This move to cut what Cameron termed “the green crap” has added over £2.5bn to UK citizens’ energy bills since then, according to a Carbon Brief study. “Cameron didn’t ban the building of onshore wind in England, but he said that local authorities can veto it,” explains Giles Dickson, CEO of Wind Europe. Since this policy has been implemented, developers have either been blocked by local opposition or have opted to take their plans elsewhere.
The policy has hampered UK onshore wind developments ever since. As Rebecca Windemer, a postdoctoral fellow in planning and energy at the University of the West of England, has demonstrated: 16 new onshore turbines were granted planning permission between 2016 and 2020 in seven separate locations. In contrast, between 2011 and 2015, 435 turbines were built on 108 sites. “It’s crazy. You need as many renewables as you can possibly build,” Dickson adds. “The UK has great ambitions for offshore wind, but the UK Government is making it harder for themselves to deliver their medium and long-term decarbonisation targets by not embracing onshore wind in England.”
One step forward, two steps back Dickson speaks with a mild exasperation when describing Britain’s decision to undermine its own wind energy potential. Given his remit, that is hardly surprising. As CEO for Wind Europe, he is responsible for protecting and promoting the wind energy industry across the continent. Not just in countries within the EU, but Ukraine and Turkey too. One of the most common obstacles European countries face, he says, is not a lack of investment – although that can be a challenge – but too much red tape. “There are too many permitting bottlenecks today,” Dickson says. “The rules and procedures that you have to follow to get your permits are too cumbersome and they can be unclear.”
World Wind Technology /
www.worldwind-technology.com
It is a view shared by former UK prime minister
Liz Truss, who, during a still spiralling energy crisis, sought to expand onshore turbines across England by scrapping the existing planning procedures. “In her brief period as prime minister, Liz Truss did overturn the previous government’s position on onshore wind,” Dickson notes. “She recognised that it creates jobs, it creates economic growth, it delivers investments and it’s good for rural economies. Unfortunately, Rishi Sunak has gone back to the status quo, which is disappointing.” Notably, Sunak briefly pledged to oppose new onshore wind development during his failed leadership bid, which saw Truss emerge victorious. Sunak would change tact and state that he would consider building onshore wind farms – a move that Truss would label “a policy flip-flop” – and would do the same as PM, looking into removing the onshore wind ban.
One thing Truss clearly understood during her short stint in Number 10 was an overwhelming feeling of public support for wind energy projects. “The public conversation around onshore and offshore wind has really changed in the past decade,” says Joseph Tetlow, senior political advisor to the think tank and charity Green Alliance. “People don’t think that turbines are an eyesore. They think ‘this is brilliant and cheap [form of] domestic renewable energy’.” Recent polling by RenewableUK supports this assertion: 77% of people in the UK think the government should use new wind and solar farms to reduce electricity bills. Even so, to improve the UK’s wind energy infrastructure the government and policy makers will need to overcome a testing set of challenges. One of the most obvious is the need to develop legions of wind turbines at a faster rate. A recent study from Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) found that nearly half the offshore wind projects needed to reach the government’s
Above: The UK has the sixth-largest wind capacity across the globe.
Next page: 77% of people in the UK think the government should use new wind and solar farms to reduce electricity bills.
11,000
The number of UK wind turbines in 2022, putting it at sixth in the world.
RenewableUK 10,000 BCE
Doggerland is a place of sloping hills, wooded valleys and lagoons
6,500–6,200 BCE
The land is flooded by rising sea levels and becomes part of what is now the North Sea
1650 CE
The area becomes known as Dogger Bank around this time after ‘doggers’ – the medieval fishing boats used in these waters
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