The project, announced to parliament by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Friday, January 8, is the lynchpin of the ruling Labour party's proposed green energy policy.

Brown hopes that by 2020, some 25 percent of the UK's electricity needs will be met by wind power via the erection of 6,400 wind turbines within 9 sites around the coast of the island.

The leading German energy concerns, RWE, Siemens and E.ON along with other international partners, have been awarded contracts to build wind farms at sites off the coast of Scotland, and Norfolk, in the Irish Sea, the Bristol Channel and to the west of the Isle of Wight in the south.

Prime Minister Brown said the project, when completed, could yield up to 32 gigawatts of power within ten years, enough for almost a quarter of all the homes in Britain. It would also generate 70,000 jobs.

In addition, the massive increase in the use of wind energy could potentially reduce Britain's carbon emissions by 40 million tonnes a year.

At an estimated cost of 110 billion euros ($160 billion), the project would also hugely benefit Germany.

Too good to be true?

Most people in the UK approve of green energy although there has been opposition to the location of some of the wind parks.

The more vociferous protesters have been reassured that the majority of the thousands of turbines will be so far away from land as to be virtually invisible.

Brown's critics find it regrettable that so few British firms will be involved in the massive construction project. And however green the project may be, Britain currently lacks the electrical infrastructure necessary to transfer the future power from the offshore wind farms across the country. This is expected to push up the budget considerably.

Britain is grinding towards a general election, to be held possibly as soon as May, and definitely by the end of June.

td/dpa/AFPD
Editor: Toma Tasovac