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BWEA Press ReleaseMonday 14th July 2003New power for BritainGovernment's expansion of wind power backed by publicOn the day that the UK Government announced a major expansion in offshore wind energy which could power some 4 million homes by 2010, the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) reveals new opinion poll figures showing strong support for the Government's renewable energy plans and confirming the popularity of wind power. The UK-wide opinion poll, carried out amongst over two and a half thousand bill payers, found that a massive 74% were in favour of the Government's ambition to generate 20% of the UK's electricity from renewable power sources by 2020, a central plank of the recently published Energy White Paper. The survey also revealed the continuing high level of support amongst the public for wind power, with 74% of bill payers polled in favour of increasing the use of wind power throughout the UK. The Department of Trade and Industry have today launched what will the largest drive for offshore wind, asking developers to tender for sites in three strategic areas around the coast of the UK. Successful projects built under this second round of offshore wind farms could provide power for as much as 1 in 6 of Britain's homes by 2010. Announcing the next phase of offshore wind, DTI Secretary of State Patricia Hewitt, said: "The Government is serious about delivering on our renewables targets and cutting carbon dioxide emissions, and offshore wind energy is key to these goals. This survey shows that people in the UK agree with us on the need for greater use of renewable energy." Marcus Rand, BWEA Chief Executive, commented:
For further comment contact BWEA Head of Communications Alison Hill on 020 7689 1966 or 07956 859 749 A full briefing is available online at www.bwea.com/offshore Notes:1. A survey was carried out by Ipsos amongst 2,624 UK household bill payers between 6th and 19th June.  
Key findings are tabled below. 74% of respondents were supportive of the Government's ambition to generate 20% of electricity from renewables by 2020, and a similar level of support was demonstrated for increasing the use of wind power in the UK. With 74% of respondents in favour of wind energy, this echoes closely the findings of previous opinion polls carried out in the UK since the first wind farm started generating electricity, with a consistently high level of support being demonstrated. A summary of 42 surveys carried out between 1990 and 2002 shows an average 77% of the public in favour of wind energy, with an average 9% against, less than one in ten people. An average of eight in ten people in the UK are consistently supportive of wind power technology, a level of support that has been maintained for over a decade. 2. Details of the announcement by the DTI can be found at www.dti.gov.uk 3. More details on the UK wind industry, both on and offshore, can be found at www.bwea.com/offshore, including a briefing of all the latest statistics, images of wind farms to download and movie files of operating wind turbines. Opinion poll findings:Q1. To what extent, if at all, do you support the Government's ambition to generate 20% of our electricity needs from renewable power (wind, waves, solar etc) by 2020?
Q2. To what extent, if at all, do you support increasing the use of wind power in the UK?
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