EoW January 2008

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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.
David Bell
The International Magazine
for the Wire and Cable Industries
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