UK to boost investments in offshore turbines, cut support to onshore renewables

The UK government said it expected £40 billion pounds of investment in renewables by 2020 after refocusing incentives to offshore wind power and away from projects on land in areas where residents objected.

In its national infrastructure plan, the UK Treasury published a list of final ''strike prices'' for electricity from renewables and cut support for solar parks and onshore wind farms while increasing it for turbines at sea.

The sums represent the guaranteed amount that generators stood to earn with long-term contracts aimed at stimulating investment in low-carbon energy.

''This package will deliver record levels of investment in green energy by 2020,'' energy secretary Ed Davey said in an e-mailed statement. ''Our reforms are succeeding in attracting investors from around the world so Britain can replace our aging power station and keep the lights on.''

Rural communities have opposed prime minister David Cameron who wants to expand wind farms and solar parks, which according to some residents were a blight in countryside.

The government would need to balance those concerns with the need to attract £110 billion to replace aging power stations and meet renewable energy and carbon targets.

According to treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander, the shift in subsidy was "a rebalancing." He added, overall spending would not change.

However, according to Labour "chopping and changing" pricing was bad for business.

The price producers are promised for onshore wind power and solar energy would be cut from 2015, while the amount paid for offshore wind power would be increased.

The shift on wind energy comes ahead of chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement, which he would deliver to MPs today.

The BBC quoted sources from both coalition parties as saying there had been so much investment in onshore wind and solar energy that they no longer needed so much state support.

By way of contrast, they said offshore wind sources needed to be subsidised to encourage long-term investment.

The BBC added, quoting both Conservative and Liberal Democrat sources, that the decision made good political sense as the government would have a policy that countered the threat from the UK Independence Party, which opposed all wind farms on principle.