A review of offshore wind power development in the United Kingdom

Paraic Higgins, A.M. Foley

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Currently wind power is dominated by onshore wind farms. However, as the demand for power grows driven by security of energy supply issues, dwindling fossil fuel supplies and greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, offshore wind power will develop rapidly because of the decline of viable onshore sites. The United Kingdom has a target of 21% renewable electricity by 2020 and this is expected to come mostly from wind power. Britain is the most active internationally in terms of offshore wind farm development with almost 48GW in some stage of development. In addition the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of Ireland undertook the 'Irish-Scottish Links on Energy Study' (ISLES), which examined the feasibility of creating an offshore interconnected transmission network and subsea electricity grid based on renewable energy sources off the coast of western Scotland and the Irish Sea. The aim of this paper is to provide an appraisal of offshore wind power development with a focus on the United Kingdom.
Original languageEnglish
Pages589-593
Number of pages5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01 Jan 2013

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A review of offshore wind power development in the United Kingdom'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this