Truly wonderful that we’ve woken up to #windpower, it can generate tens of thousands of jobs in an era of joblessness.

More cynical thoughts in the thread below...

“Boris Johnson to unveil plan to power all UK homes with wind by 2030.” https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/05/boris-johnson-to-unveil-plan-to-power-all-uk-homes-with-wind-by-2030?CMP=share_btn_tw

I’ve ‘enjoyed’ a ringside seat on UK energy policy for some 17+ years now & there’s been a world of difference (since 2015 especially) between promises made and promises delivered. Sadly journalists are less interested in deployments than announcements; politicians exploit this.

After years of waiting it would be churlish to criticise Govt for taking so long to realise that as an island nation we are super rich when it comes to this resource so I won’t be churlish. But what I will say is offshore wind is now economically unignorable.

Onshore wind, solar & batteries follow that trend with the former being even cheaper than offshore wind. So there’s an inevitability that the UK is bowing to. Turning that inevitability into a moment of individual brilliance from a politician is unedifying. Its happening anyhow.

The job creation is a huge positive in this story, especially as it can revivify neglected coastal communities, but the use of the words ‘world-leader’ are too easily emitted. The companies that are making this industry & exporting it, are not British-owned. (Missed opportunity).

So there’s plenty of positives here, but til great words* become great deeds** let’s put the on ice. And one final thing...

We’re told that wind ‘will power every home in the country’ yet ‘heating’ is bundled in & as doesn’t seem to be clear to the PM here, that’s a very different challenge, on a very different scale. Electrification can play a transformative role here too, but that’s for another day.