Winds of change are blowing in offshore energy

BRITAIN has backed a winner. We have recently found out that the cost of new offshore wind farms has fallen by nearly 50 per cent in just over two years.

Already the world leader in this technology – bringing tens of thousands of jobs and billions of pounds of investment across the country, with UK-based companies increasingly winning work in global markets and helping to regenerate communities – this month’s announcement is still extraordinary.

The offshore wind industry has rewritten the rule book on cost reduction in energy, delivering price reductions you associate with TVs and consumer electronics, not multi-billion pound infrastructure. It creates all sorts of possibilities for how we power our country, how we create more jobs, and how we export successfully to markets all over the world.

More and more British firms are winning work in offshore wind. Almost 50 per cent of all of the spend to manufacture, build and operate new offshore wind farms goes to Britishbased firms. The £17.5bn which our industry will invest in the next four years is a massive opportunity for companies in towns and cities across the UK.

Yorkshire is especially well positioned to benefit. One of the three new offshore wind projects supported by this announcement will be built 55 miles off the Yorkshire coast – Hornsea Two.

It will join Hornsea One, Westermost Rough and Humber Gateway as huge, modern infrastructure projects in seas off the Yorkshire coast, powering Britain’s homes, offices and businesses and increasingly providing the backbone of our modern energy system.

Projects like these have driven headline investments by Dong, Siemens and others to help position Yorkshire, in particular Hull, as a global powerhouse of the offshore wind industry.

Yorkshire has a wealth of companies benefiting from offshore wind, reaching all the way down into the supply chain. For example, GEV Wind Power in Hessle is inspecting and repairing turbine blades not only in UK waters but also in Belgium, Germany and Denmark. Engineers and technicians from Boston Energy in Beverley are supporting MHI Vestas Offshore Wind on the Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm in Liverpool Bay.

Having home-generated, cheaper power is good for everyone. These tender results show that new offshore farms will be able to produce power at less than 6p a kilowatt hour – lower than new nuclear and gas plants.

But we cannot power the whole of the country from offshore wind; we will need a balance of technologies to provide our electricity in future and to replace ageing power stations which are reaching the end of their natural lives.

New nuclear and gas plants, onshore wind in places where it has local support, innovative technologies like wave and tidal energy in which, like offshore wind, Britain is the world leader, will all be important.

New technology will also play a crucial role; energy storage and digital technology will help us to manage power more efficiently and deploy more wind capacity, safe in the knowledge that it will provide the power we need, when we need it. Many of the companies investing in offshore wind are also now leading the way in developing new methods to store energy, and to use digital technology to manage our power supplies more efficiently.

These are genuinely exciting times. The signs from Government are extremely positive – Ministers and local MPs get it, and want to back our industry.

The much-anticipated Clean Growth Plan will be published shortly. It can provide muchneeded clarity on energy policy into the next decade and beyond. With the right framework, investment can continue to flow into the wider renewable energy supply chain.

For that to happen, the Government needs to quickly provide certainty on the timings of future auction rounds and crack on with delivering them from next year. It also needs to promote the development of a smarter and more flexible grid and to support innovative technologies like storage.

Industry is already working with the Government to deliver a sector deal offer that will cement offshore wind’s place at the heart of the smart, green energy system of the future. The cost of offshore wind has reduced dramatically, and this offer will deliver further business growth, innovation and a highly skilled workforce for the long term.

Geographically, Yorkshire is in a prime position to reap the benefits from offshore wind. Industry has shown what it can deliver. Now we must seize the moment.