Onshore Wind

The UK is the windiest country in Europe, so much so that we could power our country several times over using this free fuel. A modern 2.5MW turbine at a reasonable site will generate 6.5 million units of electricity each year, enough to meet the annual needs of over 1,400 households, make 230 million cups of tea or run a computer for 2,250 years.

Every unit of electricity from a wind turbine displaces one from conventional power stations: in January 2009, wind turbines in the UK had the capacity to prevent the emission of 3,682,563 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum.

Since the first wind farm in the UK was built at Delabole in 1991, onshore wind energy has established itself as a mature, clean energy generating technology. In 2007 wind energy overtook hydropower to become the largest renewable generation source, contributing 2.2% of the UK's electricity supply, with onshore wind comprising the bulk of this. Wind has been the world's fastest growing renewable energy source for the last seven years, and this trend is expected to continue with falling costs of wind energy, energy security threats and the urgent international need to tackle CO2 emissions to prevent climate change.

The Government's Renewable Energy Strategy states that the ambitious target of generating 15% of all the UK's energy from renewables by 2020 means that 35-45% of electricity will have to come from green sources. The lion's share of these renewables will have to be wind, some 33GW of capacity, delivering over £60billion of investment and creating 160,000 green collar jobs.

The report 'Building a Low Carbon Economy' (Committee on Climate Change, December 2008) stresses that onshore and offshore wind together can deliver 30% of the UK's electricity supply by 2020 and be part of a radical decarbonisation of the economy by 2030.