Britain said on Thursday it plans a 10-fold increase in renewable energy use over the next 12 years, aimed at cutting carbon emissions and reducing dependency on fossil fuels. The plan includes building 7,000 wind turbines, with more support for green power, renewable heat and microgeneration.
The government's proposals for meeting its 2020 target of getting 15 percent of all energy from renewable sources expects the power sector to get about one third of its electricity from renewable sources, mainly wind, and is expected to involve 100 billion pounds of investment.
"This is a green revolution in the making... It is the most dramatic change in our energy policy since the advent of nuclear power," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at the launch in London's Tate Modern, a former coal fired power station turned art gallery. "I'm absolutely certain that this is the right course for this country."
Brown said some 160,000 jobs could be created in the renewables sector, with 100,000 more potential jobs for building and operating the new nuclear power stations that the government wants private companies to build.
Britain gets less than 5 percent of its electricity from renewables and is expected to be required by the European Commission to get 15 percent of all its energy from environmentally friendly sources by 2020.