UK plans for most ambitious offshore wind project in the world will need 'supergrid'

Britain will have to be connected to a 'supergrid' with northern Europe to realise Gordon Brown's plans to provide more than a quarter of electricity needs from offshore wind.

By Louise Gray, Environment CorrespondentPublished: 7:00AM GMT 09 Jan 2010

More than 6,000 turbines will be built around the coast of Britain. Photo: Reuters
The most ambitious offshore wind project in the world would see 6,400 turbines built around the coast by 2020 – the equivalent of building almost two turbines every day for the next ten years.
In the most significant boost for industry in the UK since the exploration of North Sea oil in the 1970s, the Prime Minister announced the power companies that will raise around £100bn to construct the new turbines including major players like E. ON, RWE Npower, Scottish Power and Centrica.

The turbines will be built in nine zones including sites in the Irish Sea, the Bristol Channel, the Moray Firth, the Firth of Forth, off the coast of Norfolk and west of the Isle of Wight. Construction could begin by 2013.
Mr Brown said the project could provide 32GW of power, enough to meet more than a quarter of the country's electricity needs and replace the power lost as ageing coal and nuclear plants close down.
But energy companies have warned that the only way to transport the electricity to land is to build a massive "supergrid" in the North Sea with Denmark, Germany and Norway. The multi-billion pound grid will also deal with the peaks and troughs caused by the intermittent nature of wind by spreading the supply of energy across a greater area when the wind blows and taking advantage from back up supplies when it is still.
Energy experts also said the UK will need to build a "gigantic new harbour", somewhere like the Humber Estuary, to deal with the equipment needed to build the turbines as well as new boats and an apprenticeship programme to deal with the skills shortage in engineering.
However Mr Brown was confident that Britain could provide the infrastructure to unlock "one of the great untapped resources of the world".
In a bid to boost his industry credentials before the election, the Labour leader said the Government would encourage manufacturers to build component parts in Britain, invest in research and construct the necessary equipment like new ports.
"Our policies in support of offshore wind energy have already put us ahead of every other country in the whorl," he said. "This new round of licences provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity.
"The offshore wind industry is at the heart of the UK economy's shift to low carbon and could be worth £75 billion and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020."
Eddie O' Connor, Chief Executive of Mainstream Renewable Power, one of the companies that will be building turbines, said the UK will also have to be part or a "supergrid" with the rest of Europe to transport the energy to shore. The network, made up of thousands of miles of highly efficient undersea cables, would initially be a basic connection with other countries off the North Sea to enable the wind power to start flowing from 2020. Eventually it could spread across the whole of northern Europe and cost hundreds of billions of pounds.
Mr O'Conner was confident the wind industry could deliver in "record time" as long as the necessary infrastructure is in place.
"To see this vision realised we need a commitment to a new supergrid, the skills shortage needs to be addressed and we need a gigantic new harbour," he said.
The UK Government is in discussion with other European countries, including France, Ireland and Sweden, about setting up the supergrid.
Energy companies, environment groups and trade unions as a whole welcomed the announcement as an opportunity to boost manufacturing and jobs whilst helping the UK meet climate change targets to cut emissions from fossil fuels.
However there were concerns over the cost of the project, especially as energy companies are heavily indebted and subsidies for wind are not laid out until 2020. After Britain's only wind turbine plant, Vestas on the Isle of Wight, closed last year there were also concerns jobs would go abroad because of a lack of capacity.
Dr Neil Bentley, CBI Director of Business Environment, said wind development could be as important as North Sea oil to the economy - if it is done right.
“Although the development of the UK’s offshore wind market could potentially create huge opportunities, there are a number of supply chain challenges," he said. "These include the shortage of skilled engineers, ramping up turbine manufacturing capacity to meet demand, and getting the turbines connected to the grid.”
Nick Rau, Friends of the Earth's renewable energy campaigner, said the Government must do more to support green technology.
"Plans to build thousands of offshore turbines are fantastic news – but the Government must do more to develop the UK's vast wind energy potential and ensure that Britain reaps the benefits of creating thousands of new green jobs," he said.
Greg Clark, Tory spokesman on energy and climate change, said much of the manufacturing will go abroad.
"Offshore wind can make a significant contribution to reducing our carbon emissions and providing home-grown energy," he said.
“Labour’s boasts about green jobs ring hollow however as much of the money will be spent overseas.
“Britain has some of the best natural resources in the world for wave, tidal and wind power but Labour’s lack of action on renewable energy means that Britain has lost its leading position and is now losing jobs and business too.”