LONDON, Oct 21, 2008 -- Reuters
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday the global economic
downturn would not affect a government drive to reduce the country's carbon
emissions.
However, an industry executive cast doubt on the ability of the UK's
existing power transmission network to cope with planned increases in wind
power output.
Brown told a wind energy conference in London ministers were committed to
meeting a target to produce 15 percent of the UK's energy supply from
renewable sources, such as wind and wave power, by 2020.
"You may have heard some people say that these difficult economic times
should or will reduce the government's commitment to building a low carbon
economy. They should not and will not," Brown said in a recorded statement
shown by video to delegates at the British Wind Energy Association's (BWEA)
conference.
Doubts have been expressed about the UK's ability to meet its renewable
energy targets, with investors warning that companies need more financial
incentives to develop wind farms.
A report in Britain's Observer newspaper at the weekend said delays in
gaining planning approval for farms, long delivery times, escalating costs,
and technical problems were all threatening to derail government plans.
But BWEA Chief Executive Maria McCaffery said in a news conference on
Tuesday the industry was confident it would be able to meet the targets.
"It's an area where there is tremendous positivism and confidence," she
said.
However, the UK's power transmission grid system is not capable of dealing
with the output from planned new wind farms, said Keith Anderson, director
of the renewables division of Scottish Power, part of Iberdrola SA.
The grid is between 30 to 40 years old and needs immediate modernisation and
investment, Anderson said at the news conference.
A proposed upgrade of the main Beauly-Denny transmission line in Scotland,
which would allow a significant increase in renewable energy capacity in the
far north of the United Kingdom if it gets the go-ahead, was likely to take
10 to 12 years to carry out, he added.
"We need more upgrades of that size and scale," he said. "We cannot afford
for that process to keep taking 12 years. If you start the process now for
the offshore and marine sector, you'll already be in 2020. It needs to
happen now.
"Scotland contributes a huge proportion of the onshore target to the overall
target and if you don't start building the transmission lines, you block
some of that development and reduce its potential."
BRITAIN OVERTAKES DENMARK
The United Kingdom would achieve three gigawatts of installed wind energy
production capacity this week, up from one gigawatt in 2005, with the
completed construction of Centrica Plc's Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms
near Skegness in eastern England, the UK's Department of Energy & Climate
Change said in a statement.
Earlier Tuesday, Centrica said it had gained approval for another 250
megawatt project off the Lincolnshire coast and was exploring the
possibility of constructing two further wind farms totalling 1,000 MW.
Britain had now overtaken Denmark as the world's largest producer of energy
from offshore wind, with 597 megawatts of capacity fully built, the
government said.
Offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom now have the potential to power
the equivalent of about 300,000 UK homes, it said.
"What this means is the creation of an unprecedented 100-billion-pounds
market for renewable energy sources in just over a decade," Brown told the
conference.
"That will create huge new business opportunities - and around 160,000
jobs."
(Reporting by Phil Waller; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien, David Cowell and
Simon Jessop) Keywords: BRITAIN BROWN/WIND tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomsonreuters.com
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