The UK could capture a 10% slice of the global offshore wind market, worth up to £170 billion a year for the economy by 2050, according to analysis by the Carbon Trust.

The recent research by the Trust predicts the global offshore wind sector will grow by 10% a year, with the potential to boost the UK’s green economy by up to £10 billion a year to the UK’s GDP – a total of £100 billion between 2010 and 2050.

Based on global deployment levels of up to 1150GW by 2050, the offshore wind sector employ up to 230,000 in the UK by 2050, with the majority working in the export market.

“Offshore wind is a strategically important economic asset for the UK that can deliver long term growth and energy security,” says Benj Sykes, director of innovations at the Carbon Trust.

“We are in an excellent position to be a global market leader. If we seize this green growth opportunity, the UK will benefit from hundreds of thousands of new jobs, a booming new export market and billions of pounds of business benefits,” he adds.

According to the latest figures from Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the UK’s electricity wind production increased by 24% in the last quarter of 2010, to deliver over 10 TWh – 7.7% higher than the previous year.

The situation for this year could be even better, according to estimates by RenewableUK, which predict at least 3 GW to come online this year adding to the current installed capacity of 5.2 GW. This would increase the UK’s annual contribution of wind electricity to around 22 TWh.

“The contribution of wind in 2010 to the UK’s electricity supply was almost 3 times that of hydro,” comments Alex Murley of RenewableUK. “This is sufficient electricity for well over 2 million homes.”

For further information:

www.carbontrust.co.uk/

www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/Statistics/publications/trends/1511-trendsmarch11.pdf

www.bwea.com/

Related stories:

Scotland drops three offshore sites for wind development (21-Mar)

UK Government sets out its approach to onshore wind (11-Feb)

UK wind farms hit record 5% electricity supply (9-Sept 2010)

UK offshore wind capacity reaches 1 GW (26-Apr 2010)

08 April 2011