18/12/2003

UK announces 'largest ever' green energy strategy

The largest ever expansion of renewable energy "anywhere in the world" has been announced today which aims to power more than one-in-six British households by 2010.

The 15 new offshore wind farm sites will produce enough electricity for four million homes, the government said.

Energy Minister Stephen Timms said: "The Energy White Paper committed us to providing 10% of our total energy needs from renewable sources.

"These new wind farms will not only put us firmly on the path to meeting this challenging target, but will help us to meet our aspiration of generating 20% of our energy from renewables by 2020."

Measures in the new Energy Bill will enable developers to build wind farms more than 12 nautical miles out to sea, beyond territorial waters.

Three of the new developments are fully outside territorial waters and include the world's largest proposed offshore wind farm in the Greater Wash area of up to 250 turbines, 30-40km off the Lincolnshire Coast. The other sites are in the Thames Estuary and Greater Wash.

Details of the sites were announced today by The Crown Estate, which leases the seabed around the UK.

(gmcg)

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