Speech on Crown Estate offshore wind energy announcement

The Prime Minister has delivered a speech to mark Crown Estate’s announcement that it has granted further rights to energy companies to develop offshore wind energy in the UK, on 8 January 2010.

I’m very grateful to The Crown Estate and their CEO, Roger Bright - for hosting this event today - and to all the CEOs of the companies joining us here for these Round 3 announcements.

This is a defining moment in the future of clean energy in Britain.
Forty years after Amoco discovered the Montrose field 135 miles east of Aberdeen and North Sea Oil was born - today we celebrate a £75 billion revolution in offshore wind that will once again put the sea and coast of Britain at the forefront of the energy industry: an investment that could generate sufficient electricity to meet the demand of nearly all the homes in Britain.

Already, Britain is the biggest offshore wind producer in the world - with 8 offshore wind farms producing nearly 700 megawatts of clean energy - and a further four offshore wind farms currently under construction.

And today we’re launching another huge expansion to meet our low carbon energy targets, with potentially an additional 6,400 turbines generating 32 gigawatts of clean electricity feeding into the UK grid.

Wind energy is the key renewable technology that will deliver the scale of cuts in carbon dioxide we need in the critical period up to the end of this decade, when global greenhouse gas emissions must peak and begin to decline if we are to avoid dangerous climate change.

And today’s announcements show the true scale of our ambition and the commitment of industry to meet it.
The consortia of companies with us today - a mix of leading British and foreign companies - highlights both the vibrancy and strength of the British energy industry and at the same time just how attractive Britain is for inward investment.

Our strategy for growth - which I launched yesterday - “Our Future Prosperity” - is founded on this very belief that as a country we should do all we can to support enterprise as the engine of economic growth. In the coming years, I believe we can create 1.5 million new skilled jobs by investing in the new industries and services of the future - and by creating the right conditions for businesses themselves to invest and grow.

This new round of licenses provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity. Following the London gateway port announcement earlier this week - it represents yet another vote of confidence in the economic future of Britain.

And this is not just a short-term stimulus but the foundation of a decade of growth - with the potential, by 2020, for up to 70 thousand jobs, worth £8 billion in annual revenues.

This will include

• Up to 30 thousand jobs in installation, operations and maintenance - including building and looking after the wind farms, laying and burying cables, civil engineering, and construction management.
• A possible 14 thousand jobs in manufacturing - and not just in coastal areas - but also in established manufacturing regions inland where components can be produced.
• Potentially up to 25 thousand jobs in services for the sector - including financing, insurance, handling consultations, developing commercial operations, projects and plans.
• As well as additional jobs in research and development.

By enlarging and extending the Renewables Obligation; by increasing the incentive for offshore wind; by reforming the transmission access regime; by introducing a new planning act to speed up permissions and consent; by introducing a new marine act to bring together coastal planning; and through the package of financial support we have arranged with the European investment bank, we have demonstrated how active government can create the conditions for dynamic markets and private sector growth.

Just last year businesses invested at least £4 billion in offshore wind - including the beginning of construction on the London Array Project in the Thames Estuary: the world’s largest offshore windfarm, an investment of more than £2 billion, designed to generate 630 megawatts of electricity from 175 offshore turbines.

And our low carbon industrial strategy and over £550m of low carbon investment funding are now proving how active government can build industrial strength in the supply chain; with up to £170 million of government funding for offshore wind.

That is how

• We have given clipper wind power £4.4 million for their Britannia project that will build the largest turbine blade in the world here in Britain.
• We’ve given Artemis intelligent power £1 million to transfer their existing technology from automotive to wind energy.
• We are supporting Vestas to develop a cutting edge research and development facility on the Isle of Wight.
• And today I’m delighted that we can announce a further £3 million of grants to support the offshore wind supply chain - with: £1.5 million for Burntisland Fabrications and a further £1.5 million for Tees Alliance Group ltd.

But our ambition goes far beyond offshore wind.
Our plan is for Britain to be a world leader in a £4 trillion global market for low carbon environmental goods and services, a market which offers us the prospect of 400,000 new jobs by 2015.

And let us be clear. This investment is a choice.
A choice between an age of aspiration - a coming decade of renewed and sustainable growth and a philosophy grounded in optimism: the belief that even the toughest problems can be solved.

Or an age of austerity - a lost decade of retrenchment, and a philosophy grounded in defeatism, cuts, retreat and decline.

And our choice is clear. To invest now in the infrastructure, enterprise, knowledge and people that will secure our future prosperity.