The UK is now home to 2GW of wind energy provides which supplies 1.5% of the electricity supply (4.6% domestic consumption). It supplies electricity for 1.1 million homes (one third of London’s homes or just under half of Scottish homes).
A potential 6% (7,940MW) of UK electricity supply is held up in the onshore planning system.
Still, the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) says the UK is falling behind its Renewables Obligation target; around 5% of electricity supply currently comes from renewables, however the RO target for 2006/2007 is 6.7%.
Onshore wind is expected to make the largest single contribution to the Government’s target of 10% of UK electricity supply to come from renewables by 2010. A further 3,200 MW of potential is awaiting consent offshore, but is held up due to a combination of financing, consenting and grid issues.
In addition to operational and consented capacity, consent for just an additional 660-1,000 turbines or 2,000 MW capacity onshore is needed to meet almost half the UK’s 2010 target – 4.5% of total UK electricity supply. This 2,000MW of capacity must be consented by the end of 2007 in order to be built by 2010.