Dr Florian Kern has said the UK is a world leader in deploying offshore wind technology and that we will be seeing more and more large renewable projects coming online in the future. Dr Kern, a Senior Lecturer at the Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand (CIED) and Co-Director of the Sussex Energy Group, was interviewed on BBC Sussex Radio and ITV Meridian News on the occasion of the foundations of the first ever offshore wind farm in Sussex being completed last week by E.ON. The company installed foundations for 116 offshore turbines off the coast of Brighton that are set to power 347,000 homes when completed.
“At the end of last week the Paris Agreement entered into force and that really says that we need to do everything we can to deploy renewable energy sources to replace sources like coal and gas across the whole world, but also in the UK of course” said Kern. “Projects like this are major contribution towards that goal.”
While offshore wind has a huge role in decarbonising electricity, other renewable technologies, such as solar, are also growing rapidly, said Kern, whose research focuses on the politics and governance of innovation for low carbon energy systems.
Listen to the full interview (starting at 35:57).
Read his article ‘The pace of governed energy transitions‘ recently published in Energy Research & Social Science with CIED colleague Dr Karoline Rogge.
If you are interested in offshore wind in the UK read ‘From laggard to leader: Explaining offshore wind developments in the UK‘ by Florian Kern et al.
