Britain to launch plan for green energy revolution

By Daniel Fineren

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will outline its plan on Thursday for meeting its renewable energy targets that environmental groups cautiously welcome but others say is unrealistic.

Ministers are expected to call for 4,000 more wind turbines to be built onshore and 3,000 more to be erected at sea as a key part of a strategy to get 15 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown made the case for investment by sovereign wealth funds in renewable energy sources at a weekend summit of oil producers and consumers in Saudia Arabia, saying it was in everyone's interests to reduce oil dependency.

"The fact is that a low carbon society will not emerge from 'business as usual'," Brown will say on Thursday, according to excerpts of his speech made available in advance.

"It will require an investment programme of around 100 billion pounds over the next 12 years. It will involve new forms of economic activity and social organisation. It will mean new kinds of consumer behaviour and lifestyles."

The government estimates its green energy drive will create 160,000 new jobs by 2020, and believes most can be in Britain if businesses make the most of the opportunities.

Renewable energy supporters welcomed the latest plan for a green energy push with some caution after the limited success of previous attempts to spur low-carbon energy.

"The key missing factor is a greater sense of urgency... We have only 12 years left and government still wants to use two of those talking about it," the executive director of Britain's Renewable Energy Association, Philip Wolfe, said on Thursday.