Victoria's Green Matters - 18th February 2016

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:

There was a huge boost to the UK’s renewable energy industry this week with the announcement that the world’s largest wind farm was to go ahead off the north Yorkshire coast. The Hornsea Project will be the largest wind turbine array in the world and will power up to 1million homes, creating 2,000 jobs during the manufacture and installation stage and 300 jobs in maintenance when it is up and running.

The Hornsea Project will be 1.2GW, consisting of the largest turbines at 190 metres tall and each generating 7MWs of energy. The intention is to have them manufactured in Hull, at a factory owned by German company, Siemens. There are also three other sites in the offing: Neart na Gaoithe and Beatrice One in Scotland and East Anglia One which will surely be encouraged by the Hornsea go ahead.

While the onshore wind energy industry was dealt a blow recently when the government announced the removal of subsidies, there is obvious delight that offshore wind is going forward even though onshore wind is so much the cheaper option. Also, when carbon emissions are taken into consideration, onshore wind energy is cheaper than fossil fuel energy generation. It is also important to remember that the fossil fuel industry is in receipt of generous subsidy from the government.

This movement forward for wind generation will go well towards our commitment under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. How necessary this is when our government has removed so many green initiatives recently.

Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.