Grow to work
300,000 eco-jobs in 20 years
THE DRIVE to produce green energy to tackle climate change will give the UK a huge employment boost-creating 300,000 jobs in the next 20 years.
The Government's Renewable Energy Strategy aims to get Britain generating 15 per cent of its power from renewables by 2020.
And that will need a programme of building wind turbines, carbon capture plants and nuclear power stations.
According to the Renewable Energy Strategy, 160,000 jobs will be created by building extra wind turbines, 100,000 from ten new nuclear power plants and 50,000 from carbon capture sites, which take CO2 from coal-fired power stations and pump it into the seabed.
Developments in technology mean many now believe nuclear will play a big role in the future of green energy.
Eleven new stations are earmarked for sites in Hartlepool (Co. Durham), Heysham (Lancs), Dungeness (Kent), Sellafield (Cumbria), Kirksanton (Cumbria), Braystones (Cumbria), Wylfa Peninsula in Wales, Oldbury (Gloucs), Hinkley Point (Somerset), Bradwell (Essex) and Sizewell (Suffolk).
Potential carbon capture sites have been identified at Teesside, Thames Gateway, Firth of Forth, and The Humber, while offshore wind farms at sites around the UK could account for up to 70,000 jobs, with a further 90,000 created from onshore farms.
A further 1,500 jobs could be created over the next ten years by the Severn Tidal Power project.
Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, said: "I want the UK to become world leaders in green manufacturing, which could support hundreds of thousands of jobs."
This article has 2 comments
the things that the scientists are doing for this planet is good keep work
By paulino. Posted May 4 2009 at 3:49 PM.
Man-made global warming is a dangerous myth propagated by pseudo-scientists and political manipulators.
By mike. Posted May 3 2009 at 3:37 PM.