The UK’s “green revolution” began not too long ago, in Delabole, a north Cornwall village that sits on a hillside. An enterprising local farmer Martin Edwards opened the first commercial wind farm in the UK with his brother, originally with 10 turbines. The idea was unheard of at the time. “The locals thought we were fruitcakes,” said Edwards, “but they didn’t object too much – mostly because they didn’t really know what a wind farm would look like. No-one had ever seen one so they didn’t know what they were getting.”

Today, there are more than 10,000 windmills in the UK (8,000 onshore and 2,000 vast offshore windmills), resulting to a drastic price drop of wind energy, thanks to Edwards’s pioneering wind farm in 1991–essentially jumpstarting the UK and Europe’s leadership in renewable energy in the world. Its net zero emissions commitment by 2050 has been materializing substantial results. Earlier this year, Britain has not consumed electricity generated from burning coal, the first since the 1880s.

This dramatic shift can be attributed to the “growth in use and the reduction in cost of renewables – especially offshore wind – the UK has lowered its carbon emissions by 40% since 1990.” This has also promoted a surprise to the Baroness Brown of Cambridge, who noted that, “We’re used to huge cost reductions in electronic devices and to some extent solar and batteries come into that kind of electronic spectrum. But actually offshore wind turbines are big bits of heavy engineering and we’re seeing almost the same kind of scale of cost reduction.” 

What does this mean for the growing offshore wind sector in the U.S.? In Massachusetts, the legislature is considering bills that would commit the state to 100% renewable energy within 25 years” through developing wind and solar infrastructure, as well as the manpower to manage, build, operate, and maintain these structures. The coastal waters off of New Bedford is estimated by the federal government to offer the most potential to harness offshore wind.

Projects like these will benefit from expertise and experience, with many still in the planning stages. The BBC reports that Harriet Cross, the British consul general to New England, wants to “share her country’s expertise to help kick-start the movement in the US.” New Bedford also has the most valuable commercial fishing port in the country, and while there has been challenges regarding the impact of offshore wind on fishing, there has been trade-offs.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said, “We see the effects of climate change in full view here… We’ve noticed that our beaches have eroded, but we also know that warming seas have changed the composition of the fish landings here. And we also know that ocean acidification looms as a major threat to the fishing industry.”

He added, “Wind farms – which cut our reliance on polluting fossil fuels – can help reduce those threats. They can also mean jobs.” The wind energy sector can help revive the state’s manufacturing industry that has been impacted by the economic decline. 

But ultimately, as Cross puts it, “There’s the bigger picture: We want the world to be more green… We genuinely believe that clean energy is the future.”