The world's most famous environmental group will descend on Kings Lynn today (Tuesday) as Greenpeace urges locals to back a new plan to build thousands of wind turbines off the coast of East Anglia.
Turbines off East Anglia coast could provide 25% of UK electricity
A quarter of Britain's electricity needs could be met by building wind turbines off the coast of East Anglia, according to a new report by a team of renowned energy experts. The vision is being backed by a group of companies - including power giant TXU - which have joined forces with Greenpeace to call for the plan to be realised.
The plan was set out today in a study by AEA Technology. The authors of the report - entitled Sea Wind East - found that a large scale East Anglian wind industry could create 60,000 jobs and attract investment of 20 billion pounds.
The Sea Wind East report will be launched today at an event in Great Yarmouth, where Greenpeace will begin a tour of the region to promote the plan. The environmental group is going on the road with a mobile cinema and a team of experts. They will be visiting sixteen towns in three weeks, telling local people how their region could become a world centre for clean energy.
Matthew Spencer of Greenpeace said: "This report nails the lie that renewable energy can't deliver on a large scale - just one technology in one region of Britain can deliver a quarter of our entire power needs. If implemented this plan would massively decrease energy pollution in the UK and make East Anglia a powerhouse of the global renewable energy industry."
Responding to British Nuclear Fuels Ltd's (BNFL) announcement today that they plan to shut two of Britain's oldest nuclear power stations Greenpeace called on the government to back proposals for local offshore wind farms to replace them.
The closure of Chapelcross in Dumfries has been brought forward to no later than March 2005 and a similar nuclear plant, Calder Hall, at BNFL's Sellafield complex in Cumbria is to close three years early in 2003.
