The offshore wind industry is hoping to secure a new deal on subsidies for
the sector with the UK government by the middle of ‘this year’.
Benj Sykes, joint chairman of the Offshore Wind Industry Council, told a
wind-ustry conference in Glasgow that the sector’s promise to hit 50GW of
installed capacity by 2050 is “entirely credible”.
He said that this would result in around £100 billion of new investment and
would also support greater innovation, research and development and also
the development of supply chain “clusters”.
The council has asked the Brit-Govt to significantly increase its
ambitions, including a medium-term target of 30GW by 2030.
Sykes added: “If secured, the deal would see offshore wind build 24GW over
the next 12 years to add to the around 6GW that is already connected.
“This would result in around 20,000 jobs being supported by 2030, with
that target almost doubling to 36,000 by 2050.”
Meanwhile, orders for offshore wind turbines ‘almost doubled’ in the
first-quarter of the current financial year at manufacturing giant Siemens,
which recently merged its turbine business with Spanish rival Gamesa.
A spokesman said: “The ongoing renewable energy transition ensures good
long-term prospects for wind power. The International Energy Agency
estimates that wind’s contribution to the energy mix will rise from 4% in
2016 to 17% by 2040.
“One factor driving this growth is wind’s competitiveness, as it has
actually underbid conventional fossil fuels in some recent auctions.”
However, since the merger of shares in Siemens Gamesa have lost 38 percent
and the company has slashed more than 20% of its workforce.
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