Centrica Talks of Government Renewable Energy Goals

Just recently, Centrica said that it had confirmed plans to go ahead with a £725 million wind farm. However, they went on to issue a warning to the government saying that their renewable energy targets will not be met unless the government can continue current subsidiary levels.

Centrica has already given the go ahead to build one of the largest offshore UK wind farms. However, they said that the government’s 2020 renewable energy goals could end up short if the subsidy was not maintained. The firm, which is owned by British Gas, said that its new wind farm would be able to produce 270MW off energy.

The government did announce in the last budget that offshore wind farms approved by March of next year will receive higher subsidies. Officials went on to say just recently that there would be no plans to make this arrangement permanent. This leaves the feature of offshore wind farms unreliable, according to Centrica.

Centrica’s managing director Sarwijit Sambhi said that, without a higher subsidy, they could not have gone ahead with this project. This is a project that will boost the size of Centrica’s wind portfolio by two thirds.

This upcoming wind farm project will have 75 turbines and be located about 8 km off the coast of Skegness. The construction of the project will start next year, and electricity would be generated from the wind farm as soon as 2012. This could mean big things for the renewable energy that the UK needs in order to meet its target. However, it will be interesting to see what the government chooses to do about Centrica’s warning.