Gordon Brown, the UK’s prime minister, has launched what he describes as his “green revolution” through investing $200 billion in renewable energy, a large portion of that going directly into wind power. The North Sea has peaked in its oil and gas supplies, and Brown is now looking to turn it into a wind farm, with 3,500 new onshore turbines and thousands more off-shore – perhaps including those enormous off-shore wind turbines they’ve been testing. This isn’t surprising considering the recent uptake in interest in wind farms in the UK.
The plan aligns with the EU’s agenda for countries to produce 15% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. This gives the prime minister plenty of time to get cracking on this ambitious path. Brown’s revolution extends into the homes of UK residents, planning for up to 7 million roofs to be covered in thermal solar panels, and calling on citizens to reduce energy consumption through wall insulation, low-energy light bulbs, and any other way they can reduce their utility bills. Additionally, Brown says the renewable energy plan could create as many as 160,000 green-collar jobs.
Skeptics say this may be a whole lot of talk and not a lot of action, as has been the case in the past. That seems like a reasonable criticism. Yet, while not the greenest of PMs (he is still looking to build more nuclear power plants), this is a big step forward in the right direction for the UK. If even a few of the plan’s goals are met, it will be an overall improvement.
