...Two wind farms, Lynn and Inner Dowsing, with a combined 180MW capacity which Centrica has built off the Lincolnshire coast, doubled in price in the time they were built. They are about to come on stream and Centrica has plans at three more sites off the Lincolnshire and Norfolk coasts.

"The worrying trend is that if the manufacturing costs continue to increase, then I think that the wind target is under threat," said Mr Sambhi.


"There isn't a real alternative to wind because over the next 10-15 years we are going to lose 25 per cent of our power generating capacity as old plants are decommissioned. There might be a new generation of nuclear plans in that time but unless we want to buy in gas - which has doubled in price in the past year - the only realistic alternative which we can build easily is wind," he said.