As the UK's population rises to a figure that is currently approaching 65 million people, and as new power dependent technologies continue to become a part of everyday life, the nation's demand for energy, and in particular electricity, is constantly increasing. Currently the average consumption of electricity per UK household is around 3300 KWh per annum.
Yet this increased demand comes at a time when a number of nuclear and coal powered power stations are reaching the end of their lives, and when the UK is committed through the 2012 Doha Agreement to further significant reductions in its greenhouse gas emissions.
It is therefore essential that the UK generates its growing requirement for energy from a set of carefully balanced assets, and it is the huge demand for electricity that has created a need for the development of offshore wind farms in the windy waters which surround this island nation. This demand is so great that it is forecast that there will be between 4000 - 5000 wind turbines in the southern North Sea alone by 2020.