United Kingdom Plans to Use Giant Wind Turbines to Power 1/2 of Country by 2020

There was plenty of buzz created late last year by the United Kingdom's energy secretary John Hutton. He announced that it will be the goal of his agency to build thousands of wind turbines to power nearly half of the United Kingdom. When the announcement was made, there was very little information given about the project. The only thing that we knew was that experts had discussed the idea for several years. However, new information has surfaced about the proposed idea. It appears that the Unite Kingdom has finally decided to implement the plan. Hutton has long been a supporter of finding a solid energy solution that will allow the UK to go in a different direction when looking at the area of energy production.

The expected announcement is supposed to also address where the planned development sites for the wind turbines could be. Current reports are stating that the UK will begin building the turbines along the North Sea, Irish Sea, and the cost of Scotland. Hutton believes that he can have all the turbines built by 2020. The main goal of the plan is to produce 33GW worth of electricity. Estimates state that this amount of electricity would be enough power to support half of the United Kingdom.

It is interesting to talk about the type of turbines that the United Kingdom is looking to build. The current design is asking for each of the wind turbines to be very massive. Each turbine would reach 850 feet in to the air. One of the reasons for the wind turbines being so tall is so that they can grab the good wind from the sky. The wind will be harvested to create enough energy to produce power for nearly 8,000 homes. There are both millions of supporters for and against the production of these wind turbines.

Those who hate the idea of the wind turbines happen to understand what the massive structures could do to the United Kingdom's shorelines. The 850 foot turbines are going to be quite visible. What this will result in is the UK coastline losing a lot of its scenic beauty. You are going to hear a lot about this over the next couple of weeks. Many feel that the idea is novel and can help the country greatly. They also feel that they should be protecting the natural beauty of the country.

Hutton plans to make the announcement in the next couple of days. It will be very interesting to see how he handles the questions about destroying the scenic beauty of the coastline. We do know that he will speak in length about the benefits that the wind turbines will produce. The benefits are great and I hope that the United States looks into doing the same. Harvesting wind power is something we have always done, but need to do more of. Stay tuned here for any late developments about this story.