WIND ENERGY IN THE EAST OF ENGLAND
The Government has invited all regions of England along with Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to make an assessment of the potential for renewable energy generation in 2010.
The East of England has set a target of producing 14% of its electricity needs by renewable sources by 2010 (i). At present in the East of England, only 0.45% of the regional energy demand is from renewable energy. The 14% target implies that by 2010, the region will:
- Have reduced its CO2 emissions by 9% or 5 million tonnes.
- Be generating 350MW from around 150 offshore wind turbines.
- Have developed 460MW of onshore wind farms, equating to between 400 and 500 wind turbines.
- Have set aside 139,000 extra hectares to energy crops mostly from wood sources, but also from ethanol and biodiesel.
It is estimated that 4,400 new jobs could be created by the renewables industry in the region by 2010. Within the East of England area the regional target is broken down into sub regional targets and the target for new capacity of renewable energy in Cambridgeshire, in which Wadlow Farm is located, is 9% with 290 GWh/yr needed to be generated from onshore wind by 2010.
The East of England is particularly susceptible to the effects of climate change. One of the key issues is drought - East Anglia is the driest part of the UK and drought conditions are expected to become more frequent (due to longer, warmer and drier summers) (ii). Almost 90% of people who responded to Cambridge County Council's climate change survey expressed concern about the local effects of climate change (iii). South Cambridgeshire District Council has recently signed up to the European Climate Menu Programme - a two-year initiative designed to help local authorities across the EU respond more effectively to climate change.
Because people in the East of England are more sensitive to climate change, there is a particularly strong drive to do as much as possible to tackle the problem.
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