The prime minister told industry leaders he had “a dream” that a giant floating wind farm could provide “gigawatts of energy and do it in a year”, according to a government source. He was addressing wind energy companies at a roundtable discussion on Downing Street as the government finalized its energy security strategy. The document is expected to identify offshore turbines as the key to boosting Britain’s domestic electricity supply by 2030, with the aim of increasing offshore capacity from 11 gigawatts to 50 gigawatts. The source said: “I have this dream that you can build a colossal offshore wind farm that will float in the Irish Sea.” Industry representatives in the debate are said to have smiled at the proposal. But Mr Johnson asked why, given that scientists could produce a vaccine for Covid in one year, a similar effect could not be achieved with an offshore wind farm as Britain seeks to dramatically reduce its dependence on oil and gas imports from abroad. Before the first vaccine for Covid, the fastest-growing vaccine was the mumps vaccine, which took about four years in the 1960s.
