7,000 wind farms will be built on the UK coastline, which will provide enough energy to power all UK homes by 2020, under plans revealed by Business Secretary John Hutton.
Offshore wind turbines will be installed, with an average of two per mile of coastline. Up to 7,000 will be installed, boosting wind-produced energy 60-fold by 2020.
John Hutton admitted at the European energy conference in Berlin that it would lead to higher electricity bills, and he also admitted that installing the wind turbines would change the coastline dramatically, saying ?There is no way of making the shift to low carbon technology without making a change and that change being visible to people.?
John Hutton said: ?The UK has some of the best offshore wind resource in the world, a long history of design, installation and operational expertise in the offshore environment and the skills and manufacturing capability to transfer to this exciting new sector.?
Alan Duncan, the Conservative MP, backed the plans: ?We're an island nation. There's a lot of wind around.?
Mark Avery, conservation director of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), is opposed to the plans. ?We do know that if wind farms are put in silly places,? he said, ?they can kill lots of birds, they scare off whales and dolphins and fish.?
Wind turbines at present provide 2 per cent of Britain?s power but, when the 7,000 wind farms are built on the UK coastline, they will provide enough energy to power all UK homes by 2020, under plans revealed by Business Secretary John Hutton.
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