Centrica Renewable Energy, the company which was awarded development rights in January, will be attending the Department of Trade and Industry's Energy Expo at the Isle of Man College on March 19 and 20.

The company, part of British Gas, will provide information about its plans for the wind farms, which could be situated about 12.5 miles from the Island's coast.

Trade and Industry Minister David Cretney MHK said: 'I hope that people will take the opportunity to view Centrica's proposals. We are grateful to them for considering the views of the local community as part of the public consultation process as well as offering to outline their proposals and to answer any queries.'

The Irish Sea zone, nine miles off Anglesey, North Wales, covers an area of 2,200 square kilometres and could house a number of wind farms.

The area has the capacity to produce 4GW, which is enough to power about three million homes.

Boundaries of the development have yet to be unveiled by Centrica.
Site selection will be based on a number of factors, including water depth, connection to the electricity grid, existing marine activities and any environmental constraints.

It is one of nine zones around the British Isles granted a licence by the UK Government as part of a £100 billion project designed to usher in a new era of green energy for Britain.

For more information go to www.centricaenergy.com/renewables

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Send your comments to newsviews@newsiom.co.im

YOUR COMMENTS

I wonder when the whistle will finally be blown on these nonsense windmills? Expensive, erratic, unreliable and very poor at providing electrical energy, an obstacle to safe navigation, eyesores in places of natural beauty and killers of birds. 4 GW installed rating means actual 1GW average generation, tops, as they are so erratic (because the wind is erratic), and they do not supply homes, the miniscule output they produce goes into the National Grid. I hope the Manx Government is not going to get financially involved in this folly? Our electricity bills are high enough already without the monstrous subsidies needed for windmills. We will not escape completely, however, as the power we buy from across will incorporate windmill subsidy.
JOHN

It is crazy that we will see from the IOM shores in a few years from now those wind turbines sending cheap green electricity to Britain while we will keep paying more & more for our own electricity produced from gas. Were the wind turbines looked at as possible alternative when the new MEA plant project went ahead? It would probably have cost more in the first place to implement but it would have provided immediately the Island with a reliable & environmentally friendly source of energy & in the long run huge savings for the end customers (the gas cost will keep increasing to ridiculous levels & availability might not always be a given due to scarcity & geopolitical issues). Would also have been a good marketing point for the IOM government (Electricity in IOM 100% green, not many nations/countries will be able to do this for a long while but will have to eventually at huge cost by deferring to latest possible moment).
FLM

Hello, My view on the proposed wind farm is that it is a pity the IOM government have not gone down this route. With the worlds natural resources, oil, gas, coal etc diminishing at an alarming rate, we need to harness nature to help us. Ok, it is going to be seen by some as an eye-sore, I think our need for energy, using natural sources, far outweighs our rights to have an " unspoilt view"! Wind farms are going to be a necessity, lets use everything available to us. Why is our government so slow on the uptake? It should be our own wind farms benefitting the IOM that we see out there off our coastline.
MRS CAROL STRATFORD-PARSON

Anyone who thinks that offshore wind farms are a cheap and reliable source of electricity would be well advised to read the book ''Sustainable Energy ---without the hot air'' by Prof David MacKay. This can be read free at www.withouthotair.com, where the author spells out the numbers involved, rather than relying on wishful thinking.
JP

I thought that Manx Territorial Waters were approx 14 miles off island, does that mean we get a share of the profits and some of the electricity that is produced or are we just going to get stuffed as usual by the UK Government.
SJ, Douglas.

SJ Douglas: We REALLY don't want a share of the "profits" from this. We are in enough debt as it is. Wind energy is an expensive nonsense. Talk of "cheap, green energy" is just rubbish. Remember those four weeks of bitterly cold weather in January? That was because of something called a mid-Atlantic low (it happens every year but normally only for 9 days or so)? I don't know whether you noticed or not but there was almost no wind during that time (actually, there hasn't been any wind for the last 4-5 days as well). That's what happens during Atlantic lows. No wind means no wind power - just when we REALLY need it because it is freezing cold! So we have to have another means of producing ALL our power. Why not save a fortune and ONLY have that other means? Otherwise we are paying twice. It could be solar, tidal, nuclear. Anything really. Just not wind. Unless you fancy seeing your electric bills more than double?
JB @ KM

I will be off to have a look see whats being proposed. The IOM should have its own wind farm up and running, or at least nearing completion by now. Instead we have spent hundreds of millions on new gas fired power station(s), we should have split the budget with a proportion going to renewable energy and downsizing the reliance on carbon fuels. Its all very well the government promoting this expo as if theyve come up with the idea themselves when in reality its Centrica just being polite and showing us what they are up to. To all those who consider these things a blight on the landscape you need to consider the option of little or no power in the next 5-10 years. The UK used to be the only self sufficent oil and gas provider in Europe (as was), however we paid the most duty! Now as stocks deplete the UK has to rely on pipelines from Russia through Europe to the UK. There is already talks within the European Parliament of how it will be rationed in the future, do you think the French would rather keep it on thier side of the pond or let the UK suffer? would they care? No! So do you think the UK will care about us? No again! If any of our ministers had any sense they would approach Centrica to see if they can add on a few turbines for us while they have all the heavy construction gear in the area.
A turbine will cost in the region of £3m plus cabling, infrastructure etc. probably a £25m project for us, it sounds a lot but for our money no object masters its small feed and will go some way to ensure a continued power source for us. We can sell back the excess! In reality come 2020 we will be payin £20 a litre for petrol and our utility bills will be £6k a year!
TTASH

The proposed wind farm development, covers a large area, but there's obviously only going to be a percent of this area that's developable. The area is outside our Island's 12 nautical mile limit, so the Island won't benefit a single penny – unless Centrica have people staying on the Island who are involved in any potential construction, and spend money here. However, any proposed wind farm site could have a negative impact on our sea links to the mainland and Ireland, mainly the Liverpool and Dublin routes.
TIM K

Here is a site from Holland, that explains the situation vs a vis windmill's electrical generation without too many numbers
http://www.windenergy-the-truth.com/index.html
It shows that these things are far from the solution they are touted to be, and are in fact being implemented for political and not technical reasons. It is plain from some of the comments above, thinking windmills are a good idea, how woefully people are mis-informed To maintain constant power for our homes, factories and offices in the years ahead, new clean-coal, gas and fission nuclear reactors are required until the fusion nuclear reactors come on line. Otherwise, it will be back to candles, oil-lamps and private generators as the power cuts kick in. (No, really!).
JOHN

Offshore wind farms are the wrong option! The better solution is to be found just a few metres BELOW the turbines. No, I'm not mentioning power from waves, but power from the sea currents! Just stand at the Point of Ayre, or at the Calf Sound and look at that lovely torrent of water streaming past the Isle of Man. Sink and anchor some turbines into that stream and pretty soon I think we'll have all the green power we need. Don't worry about the fish, the seals, the sharks or anything else in the sea, the turbines can be located somewhere blades won't turn dangerously fast, but the force of the water will turn a turbine fast enough to generate useful power. Actually, there is another side to the energy equation that I'm not sure is being adequately addressed by IOM. Energy Conservation! Research Grants should be available to allow local builders and engineers to determine how to cheaply and effectively improve the insulation and energy efficiency of our existing buildings. As fuel prices increase, we need to be able to spend less on heating, but still feel comfortable. P.M. Then once the evidence is available to show which improvements will offer the best way forward, means tested grants to allow these upgrades to be retrofitted to those who cannot afford the expense.
P.M.

I truly the Island has missed an opportunity to develop a windfarm near Jurby. It's very flat, there's usually at least a breeze, and on days there is no wind the could link a giant hamster wheel to the Jurby Hilton (aka prison) and get the prisoners to put something back into the community and save money on a gym!
JOHN MCD

I think we should have the worlds largest wind farm and be 100% green, if I pop down to the fairy bridge and ask the fairies nicely it'll be finished tomorrow! Get real, we are a small Island in the middle of the Irish Sea with a population of 80,000. People on the pages seem to think we are a World Superpower with a bottomless pit of money.
AB
Centrica is not "partof British Gas" - Centrica OWNS British Gas
JC

AB it is because we are a small population with a fairly low need for energy (give me the name of big industries in IOM requiring huge amounts of energy?) that it would be easier to get a large % of our energy produced from "green" technologies than it will be for "World Superpowers" with huge populations, industries & energy needs. Yes as some who seem to be well document on wind energy a wind farm might not (yet but technologies will evolve & improve) be extremely efficient but surely it should be good enough for such a small place as ours.
F

I find it almost unbelievable that offshore wind farms are being touted as green. Centrica are proposing to build hundreds of turbines in a marine environment already under threat from human over-use. What we are taking about here is massive industrial development of our seas at a time when we are all becoming conscious of the need to reduce man's spatial footprint. . If you peel back the layers of the onion, you find that wind industry lobbyists in Brussels and London are shaping policy in this area and most ordinary people haven't a clue what is going on. It suits EU industrialists of course to push this development as offshore wind turbines, support vessels etc are manufactured by Vestas, Siemens and other EU industrial giants. We now see a handful of individuals and companies who stand to benefit, pushing Brussels to finance a Super Grid, linking up thousands of wind turbines at sea. . Conservationists and ordinary people who care about the marine environment must join together and fight these developments which have nothing to do with saving the planet and everything to do with making vast profits for some EU industrial giants and a handful of greedy speculators. It is clear that marine life would be better served if humans do not take over vast areas of sea to provide small amounts of electricity.. Wind industry lobbyists will grab our money and run. We will be left with an expensive, intermittent source of power, a blighted marine environment and negligible impact on global climate change.
JAMES D

Wind farms are a nonsensical way of generating power from a intermittent source of energy (unless you are a landlocked country with a constant source of wind) plus Wind turbines are an eyesore that no one wants in their back yard, hence the need to sight them out at sea...as it means less hassle with planning applications. The United Kingdom as a whole is surrounded by an infinite source of energy - tidal and wave power, but it seems that our government(s) have been seduced by the sectors of the ''Green'' lobby, the energy companies and manufacturers of these machines, who have pushed these ''windmills'' as the best way forward, at the expense of development of any other technologies producing electricity from our environment. Very little has been done to introduce the technologies that have been developed, probably due to the ''eggs-in-one basket'' policy adopted by Westminster. Here on the mainland, we pay a levy on our fuel bills to subsidise these ''windmills'' - so even if the things sit there all year round, immobile, the owners - such as Centrica, receive an income from them. If you invested £3,000,000 and received an annual dividend of 10%, you'd be extremely happy - well, the owners of these ''windmills'' are, with the subsidies they are receiving, and as a bonus, they receive higher payments for their ''green'' electricity than they get for fossil-generated electricity. One may be forgiven for smelling a rat in the promotion of ''windfarming'', or is maybe the it is the heady smell of subsidies?. This article makes interesting reading: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargains-and-rip-offs/household-bills/article.html?in_article_id=430009&in_page_id=510
RICHARD SMITH, Surrey, ''Over there''.

Wouldn't sea power be the obvious way forward for the Isle of Man region. Windmills are out of action when no wind blows, but sea power is more or less continuous. GB manufacturers make sea power units while wind turbines have to be imported from Germany and Denmark. It should be possible to have sea power business registered on the Isle of Man and can be more readily adapted to provide for Isle of Man power needs. Added to all this the sea power units are very much cheaper to install, provide more unit power for pound invested, are cheaper and easier to maintain, and to cap it all are virtually invisible to the tourist. Why have these expensive eye sores to meet targets to cut emissions to prevent Global Warming which is still not proven to exist. Yes to sea power, no to Gorden Brown's hopeless white elephant.
TC

Some are missing the point! We on the IOM are or will be very vulnerable, we have one source of power ultimately. What happens when that supply source itself has shortages, do you think they will pass a second thought for little old us? Be it wind power or wave power, solar, fuel from rape seed or whatever, we are NOT suitably prepared for an alternative should our ONE source become compromised, in fact we have nothing planned either. DLGE commissioned a report several years ago, its over an inch thick (probably more now with dust!), looks about a £1m worth and provided an in depth study on wind farm locations around the Isle, there is also an online report (another) for an onshore wind farm at http://www.gov.im/lib/docs/cso/economicandtechnicalappraisalof.pdf
I dont particularly like the idea of them either, I dont like Sellafield being so close, I think the former is prefferable!
We need an option! we dont have one, we are at the mercy of the UK (again) and we know thier opinion of us.
TTTASH