Latest Wind power in the United Kingdom Stories

By Dan Warburton THE QUEEN is buying one of the world's biggest wind turbines, being built by engineers in the North East. They are currently constructing the structure at the Clipper Centre of Excellence for Offshore Wind in Blyth, Northumberland. It is hoped the 100-metre turbine will supply 7.5 megawatts of power to the national grid when it is installed. Just 20 of the huge machines could produce enough power for the whole of Newcastle. An exact location for the structure has not yet...

Not True: I am puzzled by the repeated assertions by anti-wind turbine campaigners that wind farm developers get government subsidies (Peter H Johnson, Letters, July 29 ). This is simply not true as there are no subsidies for commercial onshore wind developments. It is possible that campaigners are deliberately confusing things with the Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC) scheme, which is not by any stretch of the imagination either a grant or a subsidy from the Government, but a...

By David Wilcock The South West will miss its renewable energy targets unless there is a "massive" and speedy change in the attitude of the Government and councils, according to a new report. A target of having 15 per cent of energy used in the region sourced from renewable sources by 2020 has been set by the Government and the European Union. However, a report from green energy agency Regen SW says without drastic changes, the South West will achieve a target of "less than 5 per cent"....

I think Philip Bramey ought to look at a few hard facts about renewable energy ("Wave hub is better bet than wind farm", August 26) before dismissing wind power in favour of wave and tidal, then perhaps his blood pressure might subside a bit! Every source of energy, conventional or renewable, has its good and bad points. It is perfectly true that wind is intermittent and typically delivers a load factor of around 30 per cent. However, the overall annual output of a...

By Rosemary Gallagher ENERGY firm ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) has set an ambitious new target for wind-farm development by revealing that it wants to increase capacity by 80 per cent. It was previously committed to producing 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2010 but has raised that to 1,800MW by 2012. As the majority of its wind farms are in Scotland, the firm says this will help the Scottish Government achieve its aim of generating 31 per cent of the country's electricity...

By MARTIN WILLIAMS AN offshore wind farm which will provide enough electricity to power 372,000 homes was given the go-ahead yesterday. The 500-megawatt Duddon Sands offshore wind farm scheme planned off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, is one of the largest offshore wind farms to get the green light in the UK to date. Comprising up to 139 turbines near Walney Island, the wind farm was announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a speech to business leaders at the CBI Scotland's...

Home News IN BRIEF *An offshore wind farm that will provide enough electricity to power 372,000 homes has been given the go-ahead. The 500MW Duddon Sands scheme, off Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, is one of the largest offshore wind farms to get the green light in the UK. The farm will comprise of up to 139 turbines near Walney Island. John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Energy, has also approved a 150MW wind farm nearby. He said: "These wind farms demonstrate our commitment to...

BRITAIN'S first offshore wind farm - located half a mile off the Northumberland coastline - should soon be producing energy again after standing idle for more than two years. Green power company E.ON is on the verge of completing the installation of a new armoured cable which will allow the blades on the two turbines off Blyth to start turning again for the first time since early 2006. The turbines - erected at a cost of pounds 4m in 2000 - have been out of action since the undersea power...

By SCOTT HARPER By Scott Harper The Virginian-Pilot Researchers studying a potential offshore wind farm on the Virginia coast have reached the halfway point of their work but already have come to a solid conclusion: The clean-energy project is realistic and doable. "We're not seeing any show-stoppers," said Larry Atkinson, an oceanographer at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. While plenty of environmental and logistical questions remain, including potential conflicts with the Navy,...

Flexibility and capacity are the two fundamental issues which need to be addressed in order for renewable energy targets to be achieved. That's the view of experts in the field based in the eastern region of Carter Jonas. Andrew Watkin, who heads the Carter Jonas Energy Team, was among those who attended the recent East of England Energy group conference in Newmarket. Mr Watkin, broadly welcomed the Prime Minister's recent statement on wind power expansion in the UK but believes that...