Wind Hits 4GW Barrier - Now Powers 2.3 Million Homes in UK

LONDON -

- 4 Gigawatts of Installed Capacity in the UK

- Wind now Powers the Equivalent of Scotland’s Household Supply, and Saves 6 Million Tonnes of Coal Annually

- 1 GW Installed in Less Than a Year, as Deployment Accelerates

- Onshore Approval Rate Falls to Historic low of 25%

The UK wind industry will today celebrate the important milestone of 4 gigawatts of installed wind energy capacity, as the industry gathered for the UK’s biggest wind, wave and tidal energy conference in Liverpool.

BWEA Chief Executive Maria McCaffery, will announce at BWEA31 that wind energy has now broken the barrier of 4GW of installed capacity. The UK sector now powers the equivalent of Scotland’s household needs, or 2.3 million homes.

The milestone was broken by the final commissioning of three wind farms - the EDF Energy Renewables 38MW Longpark, Scottish Power Renewables 30MW Dun Law extension and the first phase of Dong Energy’s 173MW Gunfleet Sands offshore wind farm.

The news was welcomed by key policy decision makers, and leading industry figures as proof that wind energy is making a real difference to the UK’s electricity supply.

Deployment of wind energy is rapidly accelerating, adding the latest 1GW of capacity in less than a year. This compares to 14 years to deliver the first GW in 2005, 20 months to the 2nd GW and a year and a half to the 3rd. Industry experts predict that next year will see the installation of both the 5th and the 6th GW in quick succession.

The trend is set to accelerate even further, as the UK gears up to reach the Renewable Energy Strategy target of 30GW of wind energy by 2020. There are over 12GW of wind schemes either operational, being built or already with planning permission. When this pipeline of projects is built out in 2012, wind energy will have overtaken nuclear in installed capacity.

With another 9GW worth of schemes in planning waiting for approval there are now over 20GW of wind at one stage or another of the development cycle - which would if all those schemes were approved take the UK two/thirds of the way to the Government’s 30GW target. However, onshore approvals by local councils have now fallen to a new low, with just 25% of applications being approved.

Adam Bruce, BWEA Chairman said:

“The delivery of the 4th GW of wind energy, in the teeth of the UK’s worst recession in a generation, is an indication of the maturity and resilience of our sector.

Taken together with the 9GW of projects that have planning consent, or that are already in construction, and the wind sector is almost half way to delivering its share of the 2020 targets. We are more than doing our bit to help deliver a low carbon, high growth future for the UK.”

Notes to Editors

1. BWEA is the trade and professional body for the UK wind and marine renewables industries. Formed in 1978, and with 532 corporate members, BWEA is the leading renewable energy trade association in the UK. 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 and the urgent international need to tackle CO2 emissions to prevent climate change.

2. BWEA’s annual State of the Industry Report will be published tomorrow which will reveal that approval rates by local councils for onshore wind farms have fallen to an historic low of just 25% compared to over 70% for other major projects such roads, housing and supermarkets.

3. Each GW of installed wind energy capacity can power around 560 000 homes and saves the equivalent 1.5 million tonnes of coal.

4. The three wind farms all started construction in 2008. Having won approval for a scheme as part of the original 2001 Round 1 offshore allocation and further approval for an extension as part of the 2003 Round 2 the 173MW Gunfleet Sands off the Essex coast, is being commissioned in stages. The first 50 MW stage of the project owned by Danish energy giant DONG becomes operational this week, with the rest of wind farm already installed being powered up in further phases. The 38MW Long Park being developed by leading independent developer Wind Prospect, is in Galashiels Scotland while the 30MW Dun Law extension owned by Scottish Power is situated in Oxton, Lauder in the Scottish borders.

Source: BWEA

For further info please contact: Charles Anglin, Director of Communications - +44(0)774-002-3641; Nick Medic, Head of Communications - +44(0)7792-462-719; Mark Pursey, Communications Adviser - +44(0)759-551-1166