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By Julia Kukiewicz
Editor
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
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THE amount of the UK's energy coming from wind power will double in the next few years, it was announced this week.
Plans to expand seven off shore wind farms and produce an extra 2 gigawatts of capacity - enough to power 1.4 million homes - were approved by the the Crown Estate on Tuesday.
The new wind farm developments will take place in current sites off the coasts of Suffolk, Kent, Cumbria, Norfolk and Merseyside.
Construction on the new wind farms is due to start in 2014 but there are already other projects in development which should eventually provide around 40 gigawatts of the UK's energy, around a third.
Green Energy
Under the terms of the Renewables Obligation UK energy suppliers are currently required to get at least 10.4% of their electricity they supply from renewable sources.
The commitment is designed to slowly rise over the next few years to help the UK keep on track in its commitment to green energy: it'll rise to 15.4% by 2015/16.
However, given that many suppliers are struggling to meet their current commitment, the utility of this obligation under question.
From a consumer perspective, green energy - both as an option from large providers and from dedicated environmentally-friendly suppliers - is increasingly being touted.
Since it's obviously not possible to separate renewable and fossil sources within the national grid this is possible in two ways.
Either a green power supply - a promise from the electricity supplier that every unit of you use is matched unit for unit by the green electricity generated - or a green fund - a promise from the electricity supplier that the profit from your bill will be reinvested into renewable energy projects.
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