EoW January 2008

The International Magazine for the Wire and Cable Industries

The winds of change . . . Britain’s coastline will, if the Government gets its way, change beyond recognition by the year 2020. The reason? Offshore wind turbines. All 7,000 of them. Stretched out, that’s one turbine for every half mile of coastline around our little island. The wind farms could, in just 13 years’ time, be responsible for powering every house on our green and pleasant land. Good for jobs and the economy, and an ideal use for the wind that washes daily over this part of the world. It would also mean that the Gov- ernment hits the EU target of generating 20% of energy from renewable sources by 2020. If the announcement by John Hutton, the sec- retary of state for business, comes true, it will make the UK’s wind industry twice the size of any other country’s. Impressive, very commendable, and infinitely better than penalising the British motorist by forcing them to pay £1 per mile to travel onmain roads throughout the country. (For those of you who do not reside on our island, that really was the idea to force us to use public transport!) But larger countries – America and China, in particular – will eventually end up playing their part in the green battle. Part of that, though, may well be a substan- tial increase in the cost of fuelling your chosen method of transport. On my trip to the IWCS conference in America in November, a taxi driver was getting quite enraged by the fact that petrol had gone up to around $3.20 (£1.60) a gallon. When I told himwe paid about £5 ($10) a gallon, he nearly swerved off the freeway in shock in his high-powered cab. China will also – at some point during its strat- ospheric economic boom – need to clip its wings to overcome the phenomenal amount of emissions it is pumping into the atmosphere. I think until that point has arrived, several thousandwind turbines – although helpful –will make little impact overall.

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