Offshore wind

Offshore wind - Green Impact Report

18 October 2018

The UK’s offshore wind fleet has avoided greenhouse gas emissions of over 43 million tonnes CO2e to date, according to figures published today by the Green Investment Group (GIG). The figures are contained in GIG’s new UK Offshore Wind Green Impact Report, prepared by GIG’s Green Investment Ratings Team.

  • New report published in Green Great Britain week to mark the UK’s global leadership in offshore wind.
  • The UK’s offshore wind fleet has helped the UK avoid greenhouse gas emissions of over 43 million tonnes CO2e to date.
  • Today’s UK offshore wind fleet is reducing greenhouse gas emissions by around 9 million tonnes CO2e each year, equivalent to the emissions of nearly 4m cars.
  • UK continues to lead the world in offshore wind with over 7 GW installed capacity (33% of global installed capacity) and another 7 GW in construction or with contracts secured.

This is the first time an estimation of this range of environmental benefits from the UK’s entire offshore wind fleet has been published. Using GIG’s industry-leading methodology for green impact reporting, the Report assesses various environmental benefits that the UK’s offshore wind fleet has delivered to date, and provides a forecast of future benefits which could be delivered by the current pipeline of consented projects.

The Report forecasts:

  • over 743 Mt CO2e lifetime avoided emissions if all existing consented projects are built out in line with their consented capacity;
  • an annual emissions avoidance of over 32 Mt CO2e at the height of deployment;
  • and the avoidance of almost 14 Mt oil equivalent consumption.

The Report awards the UK’s Offshore Wind Portfolio with an AA rating under GIG’s unique Carbon Rating system, which evaluates avoided emissions as well as emissions produced across the whole lifecycle of every project.

The Report is published in conjunction with Green GB Week, celebrating UK leadership on climate action. The UK leads the world in offshore wind. With over 7 GW in operation and another 7 GW in construction or with CfD contracts secured, the UK’s waters are home to around a third of the global installed offshore wind capacity1. This volume is helping drive reductions in offshore wind’s costs. 2017’s CfD auction saw the cost of power from offshore wind fall by close to 50%2.

GIG’s Green Impact Reports provide templates for best-practice green impact disclosure. The Reports use internationally-accepted approaches combined with GIG’s proprietary methodology to produce quantified, globally-comparable green performance data. Our industry leading monitoring, assessment and reporting services are now available to third parties for specific projects, green bonds or portfolios of assets.

 

"Offshore wind is one of the UK’s greatest infrastructure success stories. It’s an outstanding example of the UK’s leadership on climate action and the green impact that new technologies can have.

Our report shows the UK’s offshore wind fleet is already avoiding greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking nearly 4 million cars off the road. As impressive as that is, the improved efficiencies of newer wind turbines mean we can expect that green impact to treble if all the Round 3 and Scottish sites become operational.

As businesses across industries look to enhance their own green impact reporting, I’m proud to offer our world leading service to other investors and developers to help them assess, monitor and report their direct contribution to the global green transition."

Peter Knott
Head of Macquarie’s Edinburgh office and GIG’s Green Investment Ratings team

 

"The UK has led the world in cutting emissions whilst growing our economy - with clean growth driving incredible innovation and creating hundreds of thousands of high quality jobs. Ten years on from the Climate Change Act, the first ever Green GB week is a time to build on our successes and explain the huge opportunities for business and young people of a cleaner economy.

I’m delighted to see how many more businesses and organisations such as the Green Investment Group are seizing this multi-billion pound opportunity to energize their communities to tackle the very serious threat of climate change."

Claire Perry
Minister for Energy and Clean Growth

Deloitte LLP undertook independent assurance of the Report. Their Independent Assurance Report can be found in Appendix 5.

  1. Installed capacity figures from UK Wind Energy Database and the Global Wind Energy Council.
  2. Offshore wind costs based on strike prices available in the CFD Register.

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