Britain would be able to eliminate its dependence on Russian gas imports within two years by increasing the number of local onshore wind farms, according to the chief executive of Octopus Energy Generation.
Onshore wind farms take up to seven years to build and connect to the National Grid but if the government accelerated planning procedures as part of the upcoming energy review, capacity could increase by a third, said Zoisa North-Bond, head of the renewables arm of UK power supplier Octopus Energy.
The UK has about 11,000 wind turbines and 14GW of onshore wind capacity installed. North-Bond said an additional 9.6GW would be needed to remove dependency on Russian gas imports.