England’s Wind Could Bring Green Jobs, Energy

LONDON — British Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has announced a plan that would create nearly 250,000 green jobs for the United Kingdom through the retrofitting of some 26 million homes with energy improvements and the construction of nuclear power plants.

 

Huhne’s proposal, which he says he’ll present to British Parliament by the end of the year, was announced just days before the opening of the 100-turbine Thanet Offshore Wind Farm, considered the largest offshore wind farm in the world — of a UK bid to rebuild the country’s economy with green jobs and green projects.

 

The energy secretary’s plan would provide up-front financing to private companies, which would in turn retrofit homes with energy saving features, such as insulation. Homeowners would pay for the retrofits with a portion of the savings recouped on their energy bills.

 

Huhne says he will support the building of new nuclear power and renewable energy plants and that he is “fed up with the stand-off between” the two energy sources, which have been a divided point of contention for UK’s government, according to a report. Huhne also pledged to eliminate power companies’ ability to impose large rate hikes without notifying UK consumers.

 

As part of the government’s goal of achieving 15 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, the UK officially inaugurated its Thanet Offshore Wind Farm recently. Swedish energy producer Vattenfall developed the wind farm, which will produce 300 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 250,000 British homes. The $1.41 billion project, which took two years to complete, is located just off of Kent in a seven-mile patch of ocean in the North Sea.

 

With the opening of the wind farm, Britain now generates five gigawatts of wind-powered energy, which is roughly the amount of electricity needed to power all the homes in Scotland, says Secretary Huhne.

 

According to Vattenfall, the 380-foot tall Thanet wind turbines are expected to operate for at least 25 years.

 

The British government, which currently gets about three percent of its energy from renewable sources, has this year awarded licenses to developers for some 32 gigawatts in wind generating projects, according to reports.