The industrialisation of our seas- Part 1

Currently about 4%of the Uk's electricity is provided by wind farms, which on its own could provide enough energy to power every home in Scotland and is the largest source of renewable energy connected to the national grid. Wind power is becoming more prevalent in our society, with more than 3000 new turbines being built or having planning consent. As a result wind power is scheduled to overtake nuclear power in Britain in just three year's time.

However this does not mean we will be seeing wind turbines across the country, as the Uk's largest wind farms are being built out at sea. Until recently the added expense and technical difficulties of maintaining offshore wind farms meant that the vast majority were built on land. Currently 99% of the world's current wind power is onshore, however with objections to the noise, unattractiveness (subjective), as well as improvements to offshore technology with the approval of the royal family  have persuaded the energy companies to start construction on Britain's 7,700 miles of coastline.

Dozens of new offshore wind farms are thus being built. Currently the UK has 436 wind turbines operating across 13 sites from the coast, meaning Britain generates more offshore energy than the rest of the world combined. The crown estate which owns the sea bed up to 12 miles away from shore are now renting zones to the energy companies, so far awarding 34 sites which can potentially generate over 45GW which is more than equivalent to half the current capacity of the national grid. One such development is the Thanet Wind Park, which consists of 100 turbines each 380 feet tall.

One criticism of the plan is that the turbines will be an unwelcome site to our shores. They can be seen on a clear day, but have many advantages, they represent money and jobs. According to the British Energy Association building 20GW of offshore wind farms by 2020 will pump billions of pounds into the Uk's manufacturing and engineering sectors, as well as creating over 45,000 jobs. However as well as being unattractive to some, they do have other, less visible impacts.