The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) welcomes the final investment decision from Dong Energy that will see the development of the world’s largest offshore wind energy facility off the Yorkshire coast. It will provide electricity for over 1 million homes. It comes in stark contrast to the ninth postponement of the Hinkley Point C final investment decision by EDF. It convinces NFLA that UK Government policy should be focused on developing realisable renewable energy projects rather than the financial and safety risks inherent in new nuclear build.
Dong Energy, the Danish state-backed energy utility for the development of wind projects, has already invested £6 billion in the project. It expects to spend a further £6 billion in the final development of the Hornsey Project One off the east Yorkshire coast. It will occupy more than 400 square kilometres and is situated about 120km off the Yorkshire coast.
An estimated 2,000 jobs will be created for the construction of the project, with a further 300 jobs likely to be created for its operation. Many of these will be made at a Siemens facility in Hull. (1)
Compare this project to the financial, safety, legal and construction problems besetting the Hinkley Point project. EDF ‘postponed’ its final investment decision due to a combination of factors – deep concern from its shareholders association and trade unions that the project could financially ruin the company, large construction and financial over-runs at similar reactors being built in Finland and France, safety issues with its reactor being built at Flamanville, and a legal challenge to the European Commission from the Austrian and Luxembourg governments and a coalition of German renewable energy companies on the EDF-UK Government strike price deal for Hinkley C. (2)
NFLA now urges the UK Government to rethink its renewable energy policy and restore the support it was providing to wind and solar energy. It also calls on increased support for district heating schemes, energy efficiency programmes to cut alarming levels of fuel poverty, and to reconsider support for geothermal, marine and tidal energy. The growing sophistication of energy storage schemes should also be positively encouraged.
Above all, the Government should support the dynamic and imaginative energy policies that many Councils are pursuing through the development of Local Authority Energy Service Companies, and more definitive energy policies in general.
Across the renewable sector, such policies are working in countries like Denmark and Germany and they can also work across the UK and Republic of Ireland.
NFLA Chair Councillor Ernie Galsworthy said:
I welcome the development of the Hornsey Project One offshore wind farm, and I hope it can be a focus for the development of other projects like Neart na Gaoithe and Beatrice One in Scotland, and East Anglia One in England. It is proof positive of the dynamism of renewable energy and that it can be delivered much more quickly and efficiently than new nuclear projects. NFLA calls on the UK Government to abandon its recent energy re-set policy with new nuclear and restore funding to other renewable energy schemes, energy storage projects and energy efficiency schemes. By also partnering with local government, a low carbon future can be delivered without recourse to the risks and dangers of new nuclear build.”
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For more information please contact Sean Morris, NFLA Secretary on 07771 930196.
Notes for editors:
(1) Guardian, 3rd February 2016 http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/03/worlds-largest-offshore-windfarm-to-be-built-off-yorkshire-coast
(2) NFLA media release, 27th January https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/nfla-welcomes-reported-delay-in-final-investment-decision-for-hinkley-point-c-as-it-prepares-to-bring-concerns-over-post-fukushima-new-nuclear-to-westminster-with-a-seminar-led-by-former-japanese-pm