The UK government has once again announced plans for new investments in offshore wind energy. Speaking at a conference of conservative members of the British Parliament on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to “revive the ecology” of the British Isles.
He explained that he will allocate £ 160 million to modernize ports and factories for the construction of wind turbines, and set a goal to produce “green electricity” for every home in the UK by 2030. At a virtual conference of the Conservative Party, Johnson voiced the opinion that in 10 years “the sea wind will power every house in the country.”
“Your kettle, washing machine, stove, heater, your electric car – they will all receive electricity from the clean energy of the wind blowing these islands,” – said the British Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister has pledged to make Britain the world leader in affordable clean energy through the Green Industrial Revolution. This plan consists of 10 points and includes new goals and investments in industry, innovation and infrastructure. The money will be invested in production at Teesside and Humber in Northern England, as well as in Scotland and Wales, BBC reported. According to Johnson, the move will set the country “on the path to a green industrial revolution” that will lead to zero emissions of pollutants in Albion by 2050.
To achieve this goal, the UK will need to generate 40 GW of electricity from offshore wind farms. At the beginning of last year, the country’s government set a goal to achieve 30 GW of power from wind turbines, but Johnson pledged to increase it to 40 GW if his party wins elections in December.
The UK will have to invest nearly £ 50 billion in total to reach its declared capacity for offshore wind power, according to research firm Aurora Energy Research. However, at the moment, about 10 GW of electricity is produced in the country by this method, so in the near future we should expect the deployment of a large-scale construction of new wind turbines. According to analysts, in order to achieve this goal by 2030, it is necessary to organize the annual construction of 260 wind turbines.
Johnson is also set to announce Britain’s fast-track to electric vehicles this month, another step in the planned recovery of a green economy following the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Financial Times. The government is considering postponing the ban on the sale of new cars running on fossil fuels, which is scheduled to begin in 2040. They want to remove him by 5-10 years. If decided, it will put the UK ahead of France to ban such cars by 2040. Norway is the first developed country to introduce such a ban, starting in 2025.
