There are some pockets of decent maritime warming right near the coast, which almost certainly are increasing snowfall substantially when the wind blows onshore.
The technology paper covers 10 technologies: bioenergy for electricity and heat, biofuels, geothermal energy, hydropower, ocean energy, solar energy (PV, concentrating solar, and solar heating), and wind (onshore and offshore).
FORBES: International Energy Agency (Finally) Acknowledges Ascent of Renewable Energy Market
Offshore wind power has historically played second fiddle to onshore wind projects as a result of higher costs and technology constraints.
He said the announcement was far from sounding the death knell for onshore wind.
It also claimed the amount of onshore wind capacity being approved at local level had risen.
One of the largest onshore wind farms in England has been approved for Lincolnshire.
But he pointedly declined to name a single onshore wind farm that he supported.
There are 3, 400 onshore wind turbines across the UK at 324 different sites, generating 3% of the UK's electricity.
He estimates that by 2015 the cost of onshore wind will decline 15%.
FORBES: Solar, Wind And Biofuels Are Alternative Energy's Most Likely Disruptors, Says New Report
Onshore wind generation will be fully competitive with older conventional sources in 2016.
FORBES: Grantham Inst. Report Shows That We Should Abandon Wind Power Subsidies
However, he said the UK needed to move to cleaner energy and stressed there was an economic case for onshore wind.
In the past, all technologies were subsidised equally, so most investment went into onshore wind, the cheapest source of renewable energy.
It also said that onshore wind farms should be one of the main priorities, something which has met with much opposition locally.
"There is no cap and no limit on it but we want to pursue onshore wind in a sensible way, " he said.
There's lack of clarity, too, over the future of onshore wind farms.
Director of policy for Scottish Renewables Jenny Hogan said onshore wind was "absolutely key" to meeting Scotland's climate change and renewable energy targets.
The mid-range projection in the government's Renewable Energy Roadmap foresees up to around 13 gigawatts (GW) of UK onshore wind capacity by 2020.
On renewables, the seemingly eternal questions are cost - on just about everything bar hydro, geothermal and (increasingly) onshore wind - and intermittency.
As a result, virtually all the money has flowed into onshore wind power, which, as the cheapest renewable technology, offers the biggest profits.
ECONOMIST: Nuclear power: The wind, the sun—and the atom | The
The price of such generation is greater than that of onshore wind, adding that in some cases it is two to three times more.
FORBES: Offshore Wind Projects Could Provide Refreshing Energy Source
The government expects that the majority of the 13GW total from onshore wind will come from large projects over 5 megawatts (MW) in capacity.
Energy Secretary Ed Davey has been unable to prevent his junior minister, the Conservative John Hayes, heralding the demise of onshore wind power after 2020.
Mr Heaton-Harris' Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation) Bill would give local planning authorities the power to specify the minimum distance between turbines and homes.
Even coming close to the European targets, say government advisers, would mean a sevenfold rise in onshore wind capacity and a 46-fold rise in offshore.
But onshore wind has run into political difficulties of its own.
ECONOMIST: Nuclear power: The wind, the sun—and the atom | The
Meeting Britain's energy needs from onshore wind power would require covering literally the entire country in turbines, even assuming that the wind was guaranteed to blow.
Welsh government planning guidance also sets a goal to generate 2, 000 megawatts of electricity from onshore wind turbines by 2025, with most of it available by 2020.
Just for comparison onshore wind farms and power production.
Onshore wind, another potential disruptive technology, is already cost competitive in many part of the world at 9-10 cents per kilowatt-hour, says Petros Paranikas, a BCG partner and co-author or the report.
FORBES: Solar, Wind And Biofuels Are Alternative Energy's Most Likely Disruptors, Says New Report
He is also offering operating subsidies through the renewable-obligations mechanism, which will pay tidal generators three times as much as the subsidy paid to onshore wind farms, and wave generators five times as much.
应用推荐