Britain will put renewable power infrastructure at the heart of its plans to recover from the coronavirus crisis, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.
“Our seas hold immense potential to power our homes and communities with low-cost green energy and we are already leading the way in harnessing its strengths,” Johnson said in a speech to his Conservative Party.
“Now, as we build back better we must build back greener. So we are committing to new ambitious targets and investment into wind power to accelerate our progress towards net zero emissions by 2050.”
A 160 million-pound ($207 million) investment in ports and factories is part of a drive to quadruple Britain’s offshore wind capacity to 40 gigawatts by 2030, around half of Britain’s electricity capacity now from all sources.
Coronavirus has hit the UK hard, with the country recording hundreds of thousands of cases and over 40,000 deaths linked to the disease. England faced Europe’s highest excess death levels during the first wave of the pandemic.
($1 = 0.7732 pounds)
