Our operations

Against a backdrop of growing concern about climate change and the need for security of energy supply, Centrica has made a significant commitment to develop renewables assets as part of its energy portfolio.

Wind power is currently the most economically viable and scaleable renewable technology. We believe that it will deliver the majority of the growth in renewable energy required over the next few years.

In December 2007 the Government announced plans for a major expansion of offshore wind development, opening up the seas off the UK coastline for up to 33GW (gigawatts) of wind energy.

Our investment

In July 2003 we announced plans to invest in our own renewable generation assets, primarily offshore wind farm developments. We will continue to keep other forms of renewable energy generation under review.

This approach is in keeping with our upstream strategy of sourcing a portion of our energy demand from our own equity sources, hedging against the volatility of energy markets.

We are also investing in a range of power purchase agreements with renewable electricity developers and financiers, which will increase the amount of green electricity that we buy through offtake contracts in the UK over the next five years. These projects cover a diverse range of technologies such as wind, landfill gas and biomass generation.

Current projects

We are currently investing in six offshore wind farm developments, three of which are now operational. Barrow Offshore Wind Farm, a joint venture with DONG energy, has been generating power since 2006 and our Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms, a joint venture with TCW, became fully operational in March 2009. An application for consent was submitted for Lincs wind farm in January 2008 and this was granted in October 2008. In October 2009, the Centrica board gave approval for the investment, and construction work is expected to commence in 2010.

We have two operational wind farms onshore in Scotland, Glens of Foudland wind farm, a joint venture with TCW, and Braes of Doune wind farm in Stirlingshire, which was developed by Airtricity. We now jointly own the wind farm with Scottish and Southern Energy.

Although Centrica shares ownership of a number of wind farms, all of the power generated from these wind farms is supplied to Centrica's British Gas operations in England, Scotland and Wales.

In 2010, Centrica won the exclusive development rights for the Irish Sea Zone as part of The Crown Estates Round 3 process. Centrica is now assessing the potential for wind farm developments within this zone. Potential capacity could be in excess of 4GW, enough to power more than 3m homes with zero carbon electricity.

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