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Government urged to realise 'great hopes' for offshore wind energy

The government needs to do more to encourage investment in the renewable energy sector, the Global Wind Energy Council has argued.

The UK's burgeoning green energy sector is set to experience significant expansion over the next 12 months as a number of sites for new wind farms in the North Sea are leased to developers.

However, despite this, the lobby group still believes that a lack of clear support for such developments from the government has been a leading factor in the UK falling behind European neighbours such as Germany and Spain in terms of renewable energy production levels.

"We have great hopes for offshore development in the UK over the next decade or so," the group's secretary general Steve Sawyer told Reuters.

"(But) there are a number of things that need to be sorted out," he added, not least enabling private developers to take charge of wind farm developments with minimal ease as well as addressing the fact that Denmark's Vestas is the only company making wind turbines in the UK.

At present, it is estimated that offshore projects account for around just one per cent of all wind energy capacity across the globe.

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