UK Launches Offshore Wind Sector Deal, Commits to 30GW by 30

The UK has launched the new joint government-industry Offshore Wind Sector Deal which will see offshore wind reach the connected capacity of 30GW and deliver one-third of the UK’s electricity by 2030.

Under the new deal, the number of jobs in the industry is expected to rise to 27,000 by 2030, up from 7,200 today.

The deal also includes a GBP 250 million Offshore Wind Growth Partnership to develop the UK supply chain as global exports are set to increase fivefold to GBP 2.6 billion by 2030. The increase in exports will be achieved through partnerships between the Department of Trade and industry to support smaller supply chain companies to export for the first time.

Claire Perry, UK’s Energy & Clean Growth Minister said: ”By 2030 a third of our electricity will come from offshore wind, generating thousands of high-quality jobs across the UK, a strong UK supply chain and a fivefold increase in exports. This is our modern Industrial Strategy in action.”

The amount of UK content in homegrown offshore wind projects is set at 60% in the new deal, to ensure that the GBP 557 million pledged by the government in July 2018 for further clean power auctions over the next ten years will directly benefit local communities.

The government and the industry have committed to reducing the cost of projects in the 2020s and overall system costs, so projects commissioning in 2030 will cost consumers less.

The deal will also see The Crown Estate and The Crown Estate Scotland release new seabed land from 2019 for new offshore wind developments.

UK government alongside the deal will provide over GBP 4 million pounds for British business to share expertise globally and open new markets for UK industry through a technical assistance programme to help countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines skip dirty coal power and develop their own offshore wind projects.

”Now that we’ve sealed this transformative deal with our partners in government, as a key part of the UK’s Industrial Strategy, offshore wind is set to take its place at the heart of our low-carbon, affordable and reliable electricity system of the future,” the Co-Chair of the Offshore Wind Industry Council and Ørsted UK Country Manager for Offshore, Benj Sykes, said.

”This relentlessly innovative sector is revitalising parts of the country which have never seen opportunities like this for years, especially coastal communities from Wick in the northern Scotland to the Isle of Wight, and from Barrow-in-Furness to the Humber. Companies are burgeoning in clusters, creating new centres of excellence in this clean growth boom. The Sector Deal will ensure that even more of these companies win work not only on here, but around the world in a global offshore wind market set to be worth £30 billion a year by 2030.”