A new milestone in offshore wind energy was reached today as the world’s largest offshore wind farm opened off the east coast of the UK. The Thanet wind farm in Kent comprises 100 turbines which will be able to produce 300 MW of electricity, enough to power more than 200,000 homes a year.

Chris Huhne, UK environment secretary, is set to officially open the farm today. “We are an island nation and I firmly believe we should be harnessing our wind, wave and tidal resources to the maximum,” Huhne told the BBC.

Once Thanet is online, the amount of electricity generated by wind power in the UK will reach nearly 5 GW – or enough to power 3 million homes.
Maria McCaffery of Renewable UK said that Britain was on the verge of exporting wind powered electricity.

The security of our energy supplies has hit the headlines following a statement last week by Chris Huhne, the UK’s Energy Secretary saying that the UK is “very likely” to experience an oil shock similar to the crises of the 1970s in the next decade.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Huhne said that the UK could be subject to “very severe blows.” Today, the UK imports some 27% of its energy needs, but this is set to rise sharply up to 58% within 10 years, Huhne warned.

According to the Daily Mail, Huhne voiced strong support for wind energy, citing it as “incredibly competitive” in producing power. Building new wind farms across the UK could help the country to withstand some of the energy shocks Huhne discussed in the FT interview.

London celebrated wind power in style this week with a 13.5m turbine right in the middle of Leicester Square, central London. Chris Huhne, UK Sectretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, visited the fully functioning turbine and said that wind energy is “at the heart of” the UK’s plans for renewable energy.

Adam Bell from EmbraceMyPlanet, a campaign to support renewable energy, said that the turbine will attract the eyes of the 200,000 people passing through Leicester Square on a daily basis. “Visitors will also be able to join the Embrace campaign, and support further take up of renewables.”

Wind farms across the country are open to the public this week, an occasion Huhne labelled as a chance to “raise awareness of the opportunities there are for energy security, jobs and business from the industry.”

The UK is approaching 5 GW of installed wind capacity; enough to power 3 million homes. “The UK is currently leading the world in offshore wind, and with over 40 GW of projects at various stages of development, wind energy is changing the way we are powering our households and businesses,” Bell said.

Disappointment in some quarters, relief in others – yesterday’s publication by the European Commission on moving beyond 20% greenhouse gas emission reductions was met by a mixed bag of reactions.

Heavy industries (no surprises there) along with France and Germany emerged as ‘protectors’ of jobs in traditional sectors, while environment groups and the Governments of  UK, Spain and Belgium backed a commitment to slash CO₂ emissions by 30% by 2020.

Notably, Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action,  warned that Europe could be on a path of long-term decline, affording space to the US and China to leap ahead in renewable energies. But she said the conditions are not yet right for a commitment to 30%.

“I think that in Europe we should also consider that you can risk losing jobs if you are too ambitious here, but there is also a price to pay if you stand still while your competitors move,” she said, quoted in the New York Times Green blog.

EWEA’s CEO, Christian Kjaer, said the EU is a “world leader” in wind energy, but it faces “serious competition” from the US, China, Japan, South Korea and India. “I would hate to see Europe losing out,” he said. EU officials have said China could be stalling a global deal on climate change in order to get ahead in renewable technology, the Daily Mail writes.

Niklas Hoehne from green consultancy Ecofys echoed this sentiment in saying, “if we stick with 20%, there will be fewer incentives for innovation.”

Chris Huhne, the newly appointed UK Energy and Climate Secretary urged other European countries to commit to 30% cuts: “Global climate change is the biggest challenge the world faces…that’s why we will push for the EU to demonstrate leadership by supporting an increase in the EU emissions reduction target to 30% by 2020,” he said, reported by the Times.

The cost of reducing CO₂ emissions by 20% has fallen as a result of the financial crisis – from the original estimate of €70bn to €48bn today, with the leap to a 30% cut requiring just €11bn more – i.e well within our grasp, Spain’s El Pais notes.

But the financial crisis has fanned the flames in the protectionist direction too. Rainer Bruederle has asked for more time to get past the worst of the economic turmoil.  “At such a moment, it is legitimate to owe oneself more time,” he said this week.

Meanwhile, others hid behind the international community’s failure to reach a deal on climate change last December in Copenhagen. Business Europe, the European business lobby, said it was “convinced that any further increase of the EU’s unilateral 20% emission reduction target at this point in time would be unlikely to convince other nations to adopt comparable targets.”

Letdown at COP15 and the financial crisis are convenient pretexts that mask over the longer term problems of climate change and staying ahead in the global technological race, in particular in renewable energies. Let’s hope the short-term protectionist mask fades away and Europe takes stronger action to maintain its climate lead.