Solution: wind turbines at work
Installed wind capacity is currently growing at an annual rate of over 30%; worldwide, installations now provide power to satisfy the needs of fourteen million households.
Time and again UK Government officials justify the timid approach to offshore wind expansion by rehashing the defensive mantra of the nuclear lobby: nice in theory, but cannot deliver on the scale required. Yet, even oil giant Shell agrees that offshore wind could generate enough energy to meet the UK's current electricity demand three times over.
The Government lacks confidence that the UK's infrastructure, engineering skills, manufacturing capacity and technical resources can produce even the modest 10% domestic target by 2010. Nuclear lobbyists and energy ministers argue that it would be "unprecedented and unbelievable" for the industry to meet its potential in a decade. They are wrong. Not only can it be done, it has been done before.
The development of North Sea oil and gas is one of the great British 'success' stories, on the same scale as building the railways in the nineteenth century. In just four years, from 1976 to 1980, the UK went from a massive oil and gas importer to self-sufficiency in energy. In total, industry has invested nearly
