The campaigners believe offshore infrastructure would both be less destructive and more efficient, argue the issues are far bigger. — Bloomberg
LONDON: With its medieval church and picturesque village green, the tranquil hamlet of Friston in eastern England should be an unlikely place for a showdown with the UK government and an energy giant.
But Friston, population 341, is on the frontline of a bitter green energy battle between locals in the rural county of Suffolk and those who want to locate a vast energy hub there.
If the plans by National Grid – backed by both the new Labour government and its Conservative predecessor – go ahead, it will see the area transformed by steel and concrete for onshore substations.
Undersea cables from offshore windfarms would make landfall somewhere on the nearby coastline before being sent a few kilometres inland via huge “cable trenches”, requiring years of disruptive construction work.
The government wants to decarbonise electricity supply by 2030. The Suffolk campaigners back that transition to renewables.
They warn, however, that current plans to bring green energy from offshore wind turbines into the grid via the planned infrastructure will be an ecological and tourism “catastrophe”.
Thousands of jobs in Suffolk depend on the year-round visitors who flock to the county’s beaches, coastal resorts and unspoilt countryside.
The campaigners believe offshore infrastructure would both be less destructive and more efficient, argue the issues are far bigger.
The Suffolk Energy Action Solutions campaign group argues that the UK’s North Sea neighbours such as Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium are already building offshore hubs and that these could work for the UK too. — AFP
