1 Seventeen of the eighteen developers are members of BWEA, together with many more of their contractors and related companies. The assumed project configurations in these calculations are 18 sites, each of thirty 3MW turbines. The average household electricity demand is 4377KWh. Every unit of electricity generated from wind power displaces one from a conventional power plant. In the UK, coal-fired plant is used for 'load following', with an average production of 860g of CO2 per kilowatt hour generated.
Costs vary by site.
6 Previous studies suggest an extrapolation of 5 full-time equivalent jobs per MW installed offshore. There are presently 14,000 employed in the wind energy industry in Denmark where many of the world's leading turbine manufacturers are based. It is likely that these companies will want to establish a manufacturing base in the UK to supply both the offshore and the growing onshore market. The full-time jobs equivalent would then rise to an estimated 22 per MW, in both direct and indirect employment in the manufacturing and supply of turbine and components, and subsequent installation, operation and maintenance. As an indication of the rising employment trend, corporate membership of BWEA has tripled since 1997.