Keynote speech in Stockholm on Wind power.

In the run up to the Copenhagen conference David Kidney travelled to Stockholm to deliver the keynote speech to EWEA, European offshore wind association at their conference 15 September. This points out why wind is crucial for the development of the low carbon power that we need and will create many key jobs.

http://www.offshorewind2009.info/

The full text of the speech can be found here

David clarifies the aim for Copenhagen 
“Our aim for Copenhagen is to secure a global effort to limit temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius. This will require huge cuts in emissions which in turn requires us to decarbonise our power sector.”  This is the level of cuts that is being argued for by most informed environmental experts, and the British Government is leading the way to making these cuts in carbon emissions become the reality. 

David’s speech points out that offshore wind can play a vital part in giving us the low carbon energy that we need and tackling the real problem of energy security.

Meeting our renewable energy target means producing 20% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020. This is a seven fold increase on current levels which is challenging.  The government is working to create the conditions for this to happen,.

• We’ve taken a strategic decision to move forward with a massive expansion of offshore wind;
• Zones are being created to allow developers to apply for planning consents.
• We’ve reformed the market framework to offer better long-term financial support for the full range of renewable energy:
• We’ve looked into and identified some of the obstacles holding back renewables in the UK and acted to ensure nothing gets in the way of rapid renewables deployment:
• This includes modifications to the planning system and creating quicker and smarter grid connections,
• We’re providing even more support for new and lower cost renewable technologies we need - . 

Wind matters to the UK because we have the right natural resources, the market is growing rapidly and we have a skilled labour market. There is also the capacity for the Research and development
• We are already number one in the world for offshore wind – and have plans for significant further growth.  Our aspirations for offshore wind mean the UK offshore market will continue to expand rapidly in the next few years - we estimate that expansion on the scale envisaged could be worth up to £60 billion.

• Over the next 11 years this will create outstanding new investment opportunities of around £100 billion - and has the potential to create up to half a million jobs. 
Finally, I want to say that we all know that the offshore environment is harsh and it’s difficult to grow a new, massive industry in this environment – but that’s exactly what we’re doing.
In the same way, it’s going to be tough for all of us to move to a low carbon future – and in the same spirit of rising above these difficulties – we will succeed.