Powering Britain’s future: Greenpeace’s battle for offshore wind

Twenty five years ago, early in December 2000, the UK’s first offshore wind farm at Blyth spun into life. 

In the decades since, Greenpeace UK has consistently championed offshore wind, not just as a clean energy source, but as a source of economic renewal and climate security. 

And it worked. Offshore wind now supplies one sixth of our electricity, and the UK leads the world in harnessing clean power from our coastline.

And the towering modern turbines that jostle with oil rigs on the North Sea skyline are real engineering marvels: hundred-metre-long blades slicing through the air, generating enough power in a single rotation to power a house for two days.

The transformation of this technology from a niche concept into the backbone of UK power generation was never inevitable. It was, and remains, a fight— a deliberate, strategic campaign waged using the power of public pressure, policy analysis, peaceful protest, and targeted lobbying.

The North Sea opportunity

The biggest job in fighting climate change is cleaning up energy, and ending the stranglehold of fossil fuels. Greenpeace needed to find solutions that worked on a large-scale and played to this country’s strengths. 

The UK’s coastline offered a unique advantage because the North Sea, historically a centre for fossil fuel extraction, possessed both shallow seas and strong wind. This makes it it perfectly suited for establishing a large-scale renewables industry. 

These ideal conditions meant that early deployment of offshore wind could be developed as cheaply in the UK as anywhere else in the world, positioning Britain as a global leader in this emerging sector while simultaneously tackling emissions.

The crucial lesson: nothing is inevitable

But even when geography is on your side, the success of green technology is never a certainty. There is no inevitability about clean technology finding its way to the market and being successful. It required more than just dedicated engineers, seafarers and financiers; it required people who could generate and give the political support to take it through its vulnerable early years, and counter its opponents as it grew.

Campaigning organisations like Greenpeace had to actively nurture and protect the technology against those who would like to see it fail, creating the necessary political space for it to thrive.

Linking green power to prosperity

In the early years Greenpeace built the economic and technical case for offshore wind, providing governments and investors with the confidence to back the nascent sector:

Less than two years after the Blyth turbines had started turning, Greenpeace published a detailed analysis of the wind and sea, showing that offshore wind could provide a quarter of Britain’s power by 2020.

Our strategy was to link clean energy directly to national prosperity and job creation. Seminal reports from this period were vital lobbying tools that successfully counteracted narratives pushing for nuclear or continued fossil fuel dominance.

The report “Offshore Wind, Onshore Jobs” in 2004 was launched in the constituency of a key member of the then-government. It highlighted the huge potential for employment, particularly in industrial regions like the North East of England, demonstrating that clean energy was an economic win, including for disadvantaged areas

A year earlier Greenpeace had controversially partnered with the energy utility nPower to promote offshore wind in a retail offering to customers tethered to the first large-scale offshore wind farm – North Hoyle in North Wales – to demonstrate that there were solutions to climate change. By signing up to the electricity offering, people could vote with their money for those solutions. 

Planning battles

It was also clear that offshore wind faced challenges in the planning system, and so beyond reports, Greenpeace actively campaigned to win planning permission for new wind farms, believing that a negative decision would discourage potential developers.

The most important example was campaigning for the Scarweather Sands offshore wind farm in Swansea Bay during its crucial planning stages in 2004. Greenpeace volunteers went canvassing along the beach and in local communities seeking support, which was eventually granted after a public inquiry. Ironically the wind farm was never built owing to geological issues with the site. But the signal that all the early stage offshore wind farms would be received positively was vital.

Offshore wind did not have the same issues as onshore wind and was likely to be more popular as it didn’t affect people’s views. We believed it potentially offered a lot more than onshore wind by avoiding the political friction that could easily hobble large-scale onshore deployment.

Expansion to serious player 

As the industry developed more substantial proposals started to emerge like for the London Array in the Thames Estuary. Again it became necessary to add support to the industry and persuade government that at this still nascent stage it required more economic incentives than onshore wind. Greenpeace pushed for recognition of this and fortunately the then-Labour government agreed to increase Renewable Obligation support for offshore wind so that the sums added up for projects like the London Array to go ahead. 

This allowed larger-scale wind farms to move forward too, and as the technology matured and manufacturing scaled, the economics of offshore wind began to improve dramatically. The next stage was about publicly shouting how the fight for the climate was also the fight for cheaper power.

In a series of adverts in Westminster Tube station and online in 2017 we pointed out, alongside allies like WWF and industry players, that offshore wind was half the price it was just two years ago, making it cheaper than new nuclear power. This marked the crucial point where offshore wind transitioned from an environmental imperative to an undeniable economic solution. The public campaign was fronted by actor Peter Capaldi 

A few years on we find that offshore wind is frequently referred to as the ‘backbone’ of the future energy system given the scale of wind resources available, and the price at which it can be obtained. 

Since then Greenpeace has been working steadily, often behind the scenes, to further offshore wind, working with the RSPB on how it can be developed with minimal impact on nature; campaigning for offshore wind as a destination for oil workers transitioning away from the oil industry as the North Sea’s fossil fuels decline; critiquing government for their policy mis-steps. 

Most recently we have been threatening legal challenge to the Crown Estate, who are exploiting their monopoly control of the seabed to drive up costs for offshore wind. We argued these costs are ultimately passed to consumers, slowing deployment and making clean energy seem more expensive than it really is.

The fight continues

The story of offshore wind is one of engineering triumph underpinned by political campaigning. It went from a few small turbines at the beginning of the noughties to massive pieces of kit by the end of the 2010s.

In 2024, offshore wind generated over one sixth of Britain electricity. Over its lifetime the offshore wind sector is estimated to have saved the UK over £30 billion in fossil fuel imports.

However, the opposition persists, growing in particular in the United States, and from those who continue to support fossil fuels and nuclear against all renewables. There is still a necessary fight for all renewable projects: solar, offshore wind, onshore wind, batteries, and interconnectors. These elements are necessary to provide grid stability and ensure the UK can realise the full potential of the industry we helped build.

Greenpeace UK’s 20-year commitment has been instrumental in securing the UK’s position as a global offshore wind leader, ensuring that the country’s vast natural resources are put to use for climate and economic security. And from its beginnings in the UK offshore wind is now a major source of power internationally with developments across Europe, in China and Taiwan, Japan and the USA.