77% of the UK population supports renewable energy, with 66% supporting onshore wind and only 12% opposing it. The survey was carried out in June and July 2012.
This is very good news for increased sustainability for several reasons. Firstly, developers have been building wind farms off shore because of perceived public pressure from Namby’s. Many might say that this doesn’t matter, we still have wind energy and that is good. However, the down side is that offshore wind installations cost at least double to build compared to on shore wind and the servicing costs are also significantly more. The survey results will mean that on shore wind can be now pushed forward will less perceived opposition and secondly, the cost of new developments will fall.
To ensure a sustainable future for energy generation, wind is one of the best solutions for the UK and Ireland due to high average wind speeds. Hand in hand with developing low carbon energy generation is the need to carbonize transport and space heating. Moving to an electric infrastructure for transport (e-cars, trams, electrification of all rail main lines) and space heating is the next logical step.