Green revolution plan set for launch

The government will outline its plan on Thursday for meeting its renewable energy targets that environmental groups cautiously welcome but others say is unrealistic.

MPs are expected to call for 4,000 more wind turbines to be built onshore and 3,000 more to be erected at sea as a key part of a strategy to get 15 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown made the case for investment by sovereign wealth funds in renewable energy sources at a weekend summit of oil producers and consumers in Saudia Arabia, saying it was in everyone's interests to reduce oil dependency.

"The fact is that a low carbon society will not emerge from 'business as usual'," Brown will say on Thursday, according to excerpts of his speech made available in advance.

"It will require an investment programme of around 100 billion pounds over the next 12 years. It will involve new forms of economic activity and social organisation. It will mean new kinds of consumer behaviour and lifestyles."

The government estimates its green energy drive will create 160,000 new jobs by 2020, and believes most can be domestic if businesses make the most of the opportunities.

Renewable energy supporters welcomed the latest plan for a green energy push with some caution after the limited success of previous attempts to spur low-carbon energy.

"The key missing factor is a greater sense of urgency... We have only 12 years left and government still wants to use two of those talking about it," the executive director of the Renewable Energy Association, Philip Wolfe, said on Thursday.

"The industry has a very short space of time in which to meet challenging targets. There are still gaps and anomalies that need to be addressed with fresh polices."

The REA said it was pleased the government had gone beyond its usual focus on power generation to look at the potential of renewables in heat, transport and buildings.

But ministers are expected to say on Thursday up to half of the target will still have to come from the electricity sector, meaning a third of Britain's power will have to come from renewables - which some in the industry say is unrealistic.

"The engineering challenges inherent in delivering a vast uplift, particularly in offshore wind, are immense and totally underestimated, if accounted for at all, in the government's thinking," said Sue Ion, vice president of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

"The consultation document almost acknowledges failure as it is printed by admitting that there are only three manufacturers in the world currently able to make the turbines, that there are not enough vessels to deploy or skilled workers in the sector."

Long standing critic of energy policy Greenpeace hailed the plan - which could see millions of homes topped with solar panels and a boom in electric cars - as visionary but said the government had failed to meet previous promises.

"If the government actually means it this time then Britain will become a better, safer and more prosperous country," Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said on Wednesday.

"But it won't happen without real government action."

Britain gets less than 5 percent of its electricity from renewables and is expected to be required by the European Commission to get 15 percent of all its energy from environmentally friendly sources by 2020.