Banks offer loans for onshore wind farms
November 23, 2009
As part of a scheme supported by HM Treasury and the Department of Energy and Climate Change, three UK-based banks are to begin offering new loans to eligible onshore wind farms.
The scheme could see up to £1.4 billion worth of funding provided to assist onshore wind projects over the next three years.
Up to £700 million of the funding will be provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB), with RBS, Lloyds Banking Group and BNP Paribas Fortis supplying the remainder. Onshore wind power projects with a total project cost of between £20 million and £100 million will be eligible for the loans.
Chancellor Alistair Darling said that the Government welcomed the EIB’s commitment to provide funding for renewable energy projects across the UK. He added that the money would help build up the UK’s renewable energy capacity.
Currently, the UK has 4GW of wind capacity. Although the pace of installation is increasing — it took 14 years to construct the first gigawatt of capacity and just 1 year to construct the last — financial support is urgently required, given that a six-fold increase in renewable capacity will be needed by 2020 if the Government is to achieve its renewable target. This target is a vital element of the Government’s overall objective of reducing UK greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.
Meanwhile, a competition run by the Carbon Trust has shortlisted a number of radical new designs for offshore wind turbines. These are expected to facilitate the installation of thousands of turbines around Britain’s coast by cutting the costs of construction and opening up deeper waters for development.
More than 100 engineering companies from around the world submitted their ideas on how to build offshore wind turbines cost effectively in severe weather conditions. An expert panel of judges rigorously examined each design before shortlisting those that looked the most promising.
The seven new foundation designs that have now been unveiled have the potential to revolutionise the construction of offshore wind farms, by reducing costs and overcoming engineering challenges currently facing the industry. Concepts such as floating turbines anchored to the sea bed and tripod structures resembling spiders offer a glimpse of the future in this respect.
Lower costs are essential if Britain is to install the offshore wind power capacity it needs to ensure that this method of generation meets a quarter of Britain’s energy requirements by 2020.
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