The offshore wind industry is also to benefit from a £30 million fund to support innovation in component production over the next four years, the government said yesterday.

This comes on top of £25 million for a new drive train test facility at the National Renewable Energy Centre announced by the Energy TechnologyInstitute last week.

The government wants the costs of offshore wind to drop to £100/MWh by 2020 and has set up an industry task force to look at how this can be achieved.

Government departments, aviation organisations and industry have signed a memorandum of understanding to mitigate the potential impacts of wind poweron radar infrastructure. Around 5GW of onshore and 7GW of offshore windcapacity are estimated to be impacted by radar issues.

The money is part of a package of announcements aimed at reforming theelectricity market and boosting renewable generation.