UK: Collaboration needed in wind sector

London would be "crazy" not to encourage the interconnection of offshore wind and power linkages, the British minister of state for energy said. The British government said it's on the way to generating as much as 18 gigawatts of wind energy by 2020, compared with the 1.6 GW available now. In a report with energy regulator Ofgen, the British Department of Energy and Climate Change said interlinking the grid could cut as much as 15 percent from overall construction and operating costs. "These cables could even be linked up to European projects, increasing opportunities for trading electricity," said British Energy Minister Charles Hendry. Hendry added this would add to efforts meant to reduce the cost per megawatt-hour and lower the cost of offshore connections as much as 15 percent. "Linking up power cables between offshore wind farms could make some serious savings, so we would be crazy not to encourage it," he said in a statement. The United Kingdom is the world leader in offshore wind capacity. The country aims to generate 15 percent of its overall energy from renewable resources by 2020.