Winds of Fortune

The UK has recently overtaken Denmark as the world’s largest producer of offshore energy, with six active wind farms located around the British coast. However to meet the government’s targets of producing 15% of the country’s energy from renewable sources by 2020, we are going to need a lot more wind farms. The UK is ideally suited for offshore generation, not only do we have ample winds but also shallow seas that make it cheaper and easier to install the huge turbines. Mark Hillsdon explores the economic and environmental benefits of offshore energy generation, focussing particularly on the Northwest and looks at the challenges and opportunities faced by this budding industry.