Ed Davey says windfarms important at time of global insecurity with western world in standoff with Moscow over Crimea
Britain's growing fleet of offshore windfarms provides a vital national security role as the western world engages in a stand-off with Moscow over Ukraine, Ed Davey has said.
Speaking on Tuesday after German group Siemens said it would create 1,000 UK jobs in wind turbine production and installation, the energy and climate change secretary said he believed a long-promised renewable energy revolution in the North Sea had finally taken off.
"[Windfarms] are not just the local providers of green energy we need for our low-carbon future, but play an important role at a time of international uncertainty that we see with now Russia and Crimea," he explained.
Russia supplies about a quarter of Europe's gas. While Britain is currently not a major importer directly from Siberia, energy experts warn that the UK would feel the impact of any wider export freeze by Moscow which could drive up the price of gas on the international market.
Davey said the government had always understood the importance of wind power for strategic as well as climate change reasons. Once erected, the turbines are almost cost-free and not influenced by changes in international prices of energy such as gas.
Davey was speaking to the Guardian during a visit to Hull, where he was meeting executives from Siemens and Associated British Ports (ABP).
The German engineering group and the UK dock company have just agreed to spend over £300m between them on the construction of Britain's first large-scale turbine factories and dock facilities specifically to serve a new generation of offshore windfarms.
The move, which has been talked about for years but not acted on, has particular significance because it comes just after the cancellation of new projects such as the Atlantic Array, off England and the Argyll Array, off Scotland. This caused nervousness around the renewable sector at a time when some Conservative politicians were arguing that Britain could not afford expensive windfarms amid austerity measures and rising domestic energy bills.
Davey said: "Not everyone believed us but we always said we were confident of building 15 to 16 gigawatts of wind offshore. Now we have this big vote of confidence [from Siemens and ABP] which shows we are on track to meet our ambitions.
"We have obtained royal assent for the Energy Act and have put in place a whole series of measures to provide certainty to investors and developers."
Davey said a range of major deep sea windfarms had the go-ahead from utilities and other operators. He added that Britain may now have too many schemes proposed, rather than the too few the sceptics had feared.
"We almost have too many projects. The truth is there were always loads of them in the pipeline and some were going to fall by the wayside. We never said we could fund every project."
New wind, solar and even nuclear schemes are ultimately paid for by energy customers through a "renewable obligation feed-in" tariff or a new "contract for difference" regime.
Davey said the new turbine factory in Hull, which will create 1,000 new jobs, was also a vote of confidence in the cost of wind dropping fast in the future as new technology brings savings.
The government had previously said it wanted to see wind developers find ways of reducing costs by 30% by the end of the decade. But Siemens, developer Dong Energy and Statkraft of Norway believe costs can be cut by 40%, according to Davey.
He would not comment on the likely outcome of an investigation into the supply market by watchdog Ofgem and others who are expected to report to him on Thursday.
He said: "I genuinely don't know what is in[the report] but I set this up and have been clear all along we needed to reform the market." Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.
Britain's growing fleet of offshore windfarms provides a vital national security role as the western world engages in a stand-off with Moscow over Ukraine, Ed Davey has said.
Speaking on Tuesday after German group Siemens said it would create 1,000 UK jobs in wind turbine production and installation, the energy and climate change secretary said he believed a long-promised renewable energy revolution in the North Sea had finally taken off.
"[Windfarms] are not just the local providers of green energy we need for our low-carbon future, but play an important role at a time of international uncertainty that we see with now Russia and Crimea," he explained.
Russia supplies about a quarter of Europe's gas. While Britain is currently not a major importer directly from Siberia, energy experts warn that the UK would feel the impact of any wider export freeze by Moscow which could drive up the price of gas on the international market.
Davey said the government had always understood the importance of wind power for strategic as well as climate change reasons. Once erected, the turbines are almost cost-free and not influenced by changes in international prices of energy such as gas.
Davey was speaking to the Guardian during a visit to Hull, where he was meeting executives from Siemens and Associated British Ports (ABP).
The German engineering group and the UK dock company have just agreed to spend over £300m between them on the construction of Britain's first large-scale turbine factories and dock facilities specifically to serve a new generation of offshore windfarms.
The move, which has been talked about for years but not acted on, has particular significance because it comes just after the cancellation of new projects such as the Atlantic Array, off England and the Argyll Array, off Scotland. This caused nervousness around the renewable sector at a time when some Conservative politicians were arguing that Britain could not afford expensive windfarms amid austerity measures and rising domestic energy bills.
Davey said: "Not everyone believed us but we always said we were confident of building 15 to 16 gigawatts of wind offshore. Now we have this big vote of confidence [from Siemens and ABP] which shows we are on track to meet our ambitions.
"We have obtained royal assent for the Energy Act and have put in place a whole series of measures to provide certainty to investors and developers."
Davey said a range of major deep sea windfarms had the go-ahead from utilities and other operators. He added that Britain may now have too many schemes proposed, rather than the too few the sceptics had feared.
"We almost have too many projects. The truth is there were always loads of them in the pipeline and some were going to fall by the wayside. We never said we could fund every project."
New wind, solar and even nuclear schemes are ultimately paid for by energy customers through a "renewable obligation feed-in" tariff or a new "contract for difference" regime.
Davey said the new turbine factory in Hull, which will create 1,000 new jobs, was also a vote of confidence in the cost of wind dropping fast in the future as new technology brings savings.
The government had previously said it wanted to see wind developers find ways of reducing costs by 30% by the end of the decade. But Siemens, developer Dong Energy and Statkraft of Norway believe costs can be cut by 40%, according to Davey.
He would not comment on the likely outcome of an investigation into the supply market by watchdog Ofgem and others who are expected to report to him on Thursday.
He said: "I genuinely don't know what is in[the report] but I set this up and have been clear all along we needed to reform the market." Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.