14 DAY TRIAL // Centrica and Warwick Energy, two companies which are in the business of energy production and trading, have just been granted permission to build two new offshore wind farms near the Norfolk northern coast.
What is interesting is that these two companies submitted not two, but three such projects for approval.
However, it seems that the British government only saw it fit to allow for construction to begin on the Race Bank and on the Dudgeon wind farms.
Businesses Green explains that the third wind farm – Docking Shoal – did not get the government's approval because of concerns regarding the safety of the bird population presently living there.
Offshore wind farms are particularly efficient in transforming this green energy source into electricity due to the fact that, out in the open sea, the winds are much more powerful and therefore speed up the movement of the turbines.
Should things go as planned, said wind farms could successfully generate enough electricity to power 730,000 homes.
As the same source explains, this is good news indeed, given the fact that by the year 2020 UK plans on having 15% of its energy demands met by means of renewable energy sources.
Charles Hendry, UK's Energy Minister, apparently argued that “These two projects will not only bring us considerable amounts of clean energy, but significant investment and jobs too.”
He also added that “We have also shown that we are mindful of other consequences, such as the impact on bird populations, in deciding that it would not be appropriate to consent all three applications.”
Presently, both Centrica and Warwick Energy are working towards drawing their final investment plans, but it is expected that work on these two wind farms will begin as early as 2013.
In is our opinion that UK's continual efforts to push for sustainable development are both note- and praiseworthy, especially seeing how, as a heavily industrialized country, its ecological footprint is not at all to be neglected.