The EconomistSeptember 21st 2019 631A
bout everyseven days, turbine parts
are loaded onto a giant ship in Hull
docks: blades measuring 75 metres (250
feet), 90-metre-high towers and 400-
tonne nacelles, the masses of steel, fibre-
glass and gears that together transform
wind into power. The ship brings its cargo
120km into the North Sea, where founda-
tions wait in the waves. Workers erect four
wind turbines, then the ship returns to
shore for more parts. In the next few weeks
installations for the Hornsea One project
will be completed, with 174 turbines dotted
across 407 square kilometres of water. It
will be the largest offshore wind farm in the
world. Hornsea Two, already planned, will
be bigger still.
Britain is already the world’s largest off-
shore wind market. Last year turbines
planted off its coasts had eight gigawatts
(gw) of capacity, about a third more than
the next-biggest market, Germany. That
number is due to jump. In 2030 Britain will
have 30gwof offshore wind capacity, fore-
casts Bloombergnef, an energy data firm,
second only to China, which is set to zoom
ahead (see chart on next page). Britain’s
Committee on Climate Change expects in-
vestment to continue, with offshore wind a
crucial part of the government’s efforts to
achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
To some, Britain proves how govern-
ment can spur the rapid deployment of
clean technology. To others, it shows the
cost of meddling in power markets. Both
assessments are correct.
Governments around the world are
seeking to slash emissions from electricity
generation, a task made more urgent by the
shift to electric cars. Offshore wind has nat-ural appeal. The wind blows at night and in
winter, complementing the power from so-
lar panels. Place turbines in the sea and you
also dodge the nimbys who detest them on
land. Even so, offshore wind’s global capac-
ity is about one-twentieth that of onshore
wind or solar. The main reason is that, until
very recently, it was extremely expensive.
Yet Britain has seen a boom. That is due
in part to geography, with high winds and
shallow seas, and in part to policy. Britain’s
push for renewable power gained steam in
2008, when the Climate Change Act re-
quired greenhouse-gas emissions in 2050
to be at least 80% below their level in 1990.
Politicians have favoured offshore wind,
funding research and a giant facility in
Northumberland to test blades. Most im-
portant, however, has been subsidy.
The government decided to provide
more financial support to early large-scale
wind farms, such as the London Array off
the Kent coast, completed in 2013, than to
onshore wind or solar. Offshore wind was
capital-intensive and immature, the logic
went, so needed help. In 2013 ministers au-
thorised competitive auctions for low-car-
bon power. Companies bid to supply elec-
tricity in 15-year contracts and the
government pays the difference between
the bid price and the market price. Since
2015, those auctions have excluded on-
shore wind and solar.
Long contracts gave companies the cer-
tainty to invest. Siemens Gamesa, which is
making the turbines for Hornsea One, de-
cided in 2014 to build a blade factory inWind power
The experiment
HULL
Lessons from the world’s biggest offshore-wind market
Britain
Alsointhissection
64 Studentbarscalltime
65 Bagehot: Counterfactual CameronRead more from this week’s Britain section:
Economist.com/Britain