My understanding was that it was basically an off the shelf onshore wind farm stuck out at sea, it's incredible it lasted as long as it did to be honest!

The original Blyth offshore wind farm was decommissioned after 19 years, though there are still newer demonstration sites at Blyth generating and innovating! You're absolutely right though that modern wind farms are planned with much longer life expectancies as learning has developed.

⛈️ It's not all been plain sailing, but with the right support the 'windustry' can enter a period of consolidation, find those calmer waters and at the same time really maximise local manufacturing and engineering employment.

Report link:
ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

🛠️ It's important to note the investment going into ports around the coastline too, often forgotten parts of Britain's industrial heritage. These areas are clearly benefitting from the re-industrialisation potential of offshore wind.

⚓ In what I am calling the beginning of the 'windustrial revolution' - the ribbon was cut on Britain’s first offshore wind farm off Blyth Harbour on 7th December 2000. Starting with just two turbines and 4 MW, the industry has grown to 47 operational offshore wind farms, over 16 GW total.

Many thanks for sharing Chris!
This comes from our report published yesterday, which has lots more lovely data visualisations if I do say so myself ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

Nicely illustrated by @frankiemayo.bsky.social and @ember-energy.org

The marginal field is far less productive.

For more charts and insight, see the full report here: ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

🐜The CCS clusters seem clear when you see the largest emitters mapped, but very little progress has been made in the last year. With every year of delay, the alternative of electrification becomes more and more imperative, more applicable to a wider array of technologies, and more competitive.

🌳The emissions from biomass power plants are inescapable. Drax generates more than the top 6 largest gas power plants, combined!

🔥Gas power plants are the most common, they make up 13 of the top 25 largest emitters, although with reduced generation last year there were some unexpected changes in the rankings.

> Sources
DNV report: brandcentral.dnv.com/original/gal...
UK gov CCS reference: publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...

Full report available here: ember-energy.org/latest-insig...