The growth of offshore wind has reduced the UK’s spending on imported fuels by at least £30bn (in 2024 real prices) to-date, finds new analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU). The ECIU says that since late 2000, cumulative generation from offshore wind totalled over 400TWh as of mid-2025, which otherwise would likely have been provided by a mixture of gas and coal. Given the ongoing decline of UK gas and coal production, this extra consumption would have pushed up imports by 10% and 4%, respectively, over the past 25 years.
Of these avoided payments to overseas fossil fuel producers, an estimated £1bn (real prices, 2024 £) could have been paid to Russia for imports of LNG and coal, based on its historical share of imports, were it not for UK offshore wind power.
The assessment comes as the UK marks 25 years since the its first offshore wind farm began to generate at Blyth, off the coast of Northumberland. This 4MW wind farm consisted of two turbines and was built a kilometre out to sea at an average depth of eight metres, generating enough power for 3,000 homes.
Last year wind power produced a record 17% of the UK’s electricity overall (48.5TWh), and the industry from 2,878 offshore wind turbines (10 floating, 2,868 fixed) with a total generating capacity of 16.1 GW.
Without the development of the offshore wind sector, the country would have imported and burned more than 20 million additional tonnes of gas over the last 25 years.
Nearly 2,000 companies all around the UK are now part of the wind energy supply chain, including 160 factories, which are forecast to contribute £18.2 billion to the UK economy over the next decade.
There is more than 7.5GW of offshore wind currently under construction, which will be fully operational in the next two years, as well as a further 22GW consented through to 2033.
The ECIU analysis found that, for the first time, UK offshore wind generation overtook the amount of electricity generated from domestically-produced gas in 2024, generating around 10% more power. Jess Ralston, Head of Energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said: “We’re seeing a symbolic shift in power in the North Sea as gas continues its decades-long decline while offshore wind takes top spot as the main source of British electricity for homes and businesses across the UK.

“As a mature basin, it’s an inevitability that North Sea gas output will continue to fall, so unless offshore wind expands, we’ll be ever more reliant on foreign gas imports and be ever more dependent on the international gas markets that sent bills haywire.

“The UK has done well to shift to clean, homegrown electricity, but it now needs to do the same for heating. Unless the UK gets on with installing electric heat pumps that can run off British renewables, the UK’s gas boilers will increasingly run on foreign gas as the North Sea runs out.”