The British Government recognises how vital energy is to a modern economy. It has announced a review of energy policy that will look at the risks to security of supply and the UK’s climate change commitments, and will be important in ensuring reliable, affordable, clean supplies of energy for the long term. The UK has the best wind resource in Europe and offshore wind power has the potential to make a very real contribution to the UK’s energy mix and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Government has set tough targets for the percentages of the UK’s electricity supply it would like to see provided by renewable energy sources, rising from 10.4% by 2010 to 15.4% by 2015.

The Renewables Obligation (RO), which came into force in 2002, is the Government’s main policy instrument for encouraging the expansion of electricity generated from renewable sources. As a result of the RO, 2005 saw the largest amount of renewable generation ever installed in the UK, including over 500MW of wind capacity, double the amount installed in 2004. Currently only wind power can provide meaningful levels of low carbon electricity generation at a cost comparable to existing non-renewable technologies such as gas, coal and nuclear.