GOOD THING TEDDY DOESN'T LIVE IN THE UK: "Giant offshore wind farms to supply half of UK power"

LONDON TIMES:

Britain is to launch a huge expansion of offshore wind-power with plans for thousands of turbines in the North Sea, Irish Sea and around the coast of Scotland.

John Hutton, the energy secretary, will this week announce plans to build enough turbines to generate nearly half Britain’s current electricity consumption. He will open the whole of Britain’s continental shelf to development, apart from areas vital for shipping and fishing.

The scheme could see turbines so large that they would reach 850ft into the sky, nearly 100ft taller than Canary Wharf. Each would be capable of powering up to 8,000 homes.

Britain’s current range of coal, gas, nuclear and other power stations are capable of generating 75 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, but less than 0.5GW comes from wind. Planning consents have been granted for a further 3GW and the government had already made clear it wanted this raised to 8GW.

Hutton will announce at an energy conference in Berlin tomorrow that he wants to see this target raised to 33GW-worth of wind turbines installed in the seas around Britain by 2020. If energy consumption remains stable this would mean wind power could supply the electricity needs of every home in Britain.

• BETWEEN WIND, SOLAR, COAL, NUCLEAR (AND FUSION, ONE DAY) WE CAN TELL THE MIDDLE EAST OIL SUPPLIERS TO GO TO HELL.

• AS LONG AS THE HYPOCRITICAL LIBS LIKE KENNEDY, KERRY, AND CRONKITE DON'T GET IN THE WAY!