Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has pledged a green industrial revolution with wind power leading the way. He said a future Labour government would create 37 new wind farms over 10 years, creating 67,000 jobs and multiplying the UK’s current wind energy capacity by five in the process.
Labour say the project will be worth £83bn over 10 years, with funding coming from a mixture of private investment and public money. While visiting a wind turbine facility in Fawley near Southampton, Corbyn pointed to the decreasing cost of wind turbines and their potential.
In addition to creating jobs in coastal communities, the plan would see a fifth of profits from wind farms – which could be worth between £600m and £1bn – ploughed back into coastal communities, with communities choosing which projects to fund. Corbyn said about this:
“Holiday patterns have completely changed—they [coastal communities] need income, they need refurbishment, they need regeneration and they need jobs. The local community will decide how it’s spent: A library, a park, a youth centre, a nursery. People in small towns usually know what’s best for them.”
While some have cast doubt on the feasibility of such a grand scheme, it cannot be denied that thanks to advances in technology, such as Mobil SHC Gear 320 WT from Mobil distributors, offshore wind energy presents great potential. In the latest round of government reverse auctions, the winning proposals came in below the current wholesale electricity price, making them effectively subsidy-free.
