Government tries to drum up investment in offshore wind

"Getting new capital into projects like offshore wind farms is the difference between getting them off the drawing board and into the water, creating jobs and stimulating growth," Charles Hendry, Minister of State for Energy said. "We have invited potential investors to London today to make the case for offshore wind as a stable, long-term and lucrative investment opportunity."

The UK is currently the world leader in offshore wind and has installed over five gigawatts of on and offshore wind capacity. But Germany threatens to overtake it by 2015 and Britain needs around £200 billion of investment to upgrade and decarbonise its ageing energy infrastructure over the next decade. It needs to find much of that funding from sources beyond the UK’s current major energy suppliers, the Government said.  

Indicating the urgency the Government is placing on securing investment for the UK’s offshore wind market, today’s meeting got the personal backing of the Prime Minister David Cameron who said he was "determined to seize" the opportunity the sector presented to the UK economy. 

 
"I believe the UK will remain the world’s most attractive offshore wind market for many years to come. We have abundant natural advantages and a world-leading marine engineering base," he declared. 

"The Coalition Government strongly supports the growth of renewable energy in order to help diversify and decarbonise our long term energy mix."

Retreating
But today’s meeting with investors comes amid signs the Government is retreating on its green agenda, threatening fragile investor confidence in its green economy. Its decision, last month, to slash Feed-in Tariffs for solar PV has led to accusations from the solar industry and green groups that it is creating 'boom and bust’, while in his autumn statement today, the Chancellor is expected to announce carbon tax breaks for energy intensive industrial companies and that money set aside to invest in carbon capture and storage in this Parliament will now be diverted to other infrastructure projects, including road-building.

Insisting the UK remained a global leader in offshore wind, Hendry said if people were not seriously considering investing here, he want to know why.