ABSTRACT
Wind energy systems deployed in the shallow but windy waters of the southern North Sea have the potential to provide more than 20 per cent of UK electricity needs. However, the potential contribution from windmills offshore is at least an order of magnitude greater. To facilitate supervision and maintenance, and to minimize the cost of interconnecting the power outputs from individual windmills, offshore windmills should be deployed in clusters of about 1000MW total installed capacity. In the area off the Wash one could locate several such windmill clusters, and other locations around our coasts, e.g. Cardigan Bay, could provide additional shallow-water sites for offshore windmill clusters. Offshore wind energy systems could therefore play a very useful role in meeting Britain’s energy needs, and could also provide a major new activity for Britain’s aerospace and engineering industries. Fortunately wind energy systems can be developed step-by-step at relatively low cost.
