One-third of UK electricity to be wind-generated by 2030

The United Kingdom (UK) government has announced that a third of British electricity will be generated from offshore wind farms by 2030.
The move comes under the new Offshore Wind Sector Deal, a joint commitment by the government and the offshore wind industry to grow the renewables sector and provide clean energy to the country.
The government declared 70 percent of UK energy will come from low carbon sources over the next 10 years, with plans for investing $52 billion in infrastructure as part of the UK's current industrial strategy.
A total of $328 million will be invested in the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership to input innovation in existing companies for things like robotics, advanced manufacturing, new materials, and larger turbines.
The goal is to eventually reduce the cost of projects and move towards a subsidy-free system.
The number of jobs in the offshore wind sector is set to triple, to 27,000, over the next decade. In the same timeframe, exports to Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the U.S. will increase five times, to $3.4 billion per year.
David Sheret, Executive Director at subsea market intelligence firm Archer Knight, believes this move is positive for the oil and gas industry.
“Oil and gas still has a major role to play in our energy needs for many years to come and I only see further offshore energy projects as an opportunity for us to adapt the skills and experiences we’ve gathered from oil and gas and apply them in a way that not only keeps the UK at the forefront of the global subsea operations but it also provides the industry with a greater defence against the cyclical nature of oil & gas as a stand-alone commodity,” he said in an email sent to Kallanish Energy.
“Whilst there’s no doubt the offshore oil & gas industry witnessed significant redundancies over the past few years, the introduction of greater offshore engineering opportunities, not just through renewables but also through the general ‘blue economy’, will mean that the engineering professional of the future will be more likely to develop transferable skills that can adapted to almost any offshore engineering project,” he added.