THE cost of offshore wind power has continued to fall over the last 12 months, new figures show.

A report published this week demonstrates the cost of energy from offshore windfarms decreased throughout 2015 and remains on track to deliver a target of £100 per megawatt hours by 2020. 

This was the second annual Cost Reduction Monitoring Framework report delivered by the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult on behalf of the Offshore Wind Programme Board that aims to show the financial returns on turbine technology investment. 

Cumbria is a pioneer in offshore wind power and is set to become home to the world's largest offshore windfarm - just 19 miles off the shores of Walney - that is being developed by Dong Energy.

Benj Sykes, Dong Energy's UK country chairman and industry co-chairman of the Offshore Wind Industry Council, said: “We have continued to see excellent progress in reducing the cost of clean energy from offshore wind. 

"The industry is fast-tracking adoption of new innovation in turbine design and in project operations, putting us ahead of the curve in efforts to bring down the cost of offshore wind. 

"We are very confident that we cannot only reach our £100/MWh milestone, but go beyond this to become fully cost competitive with other generation technologies.

"We welcome the UK government’s continued strong support for the offshore wind sector, recognising it as a major contributor to the nation’s future energy mix."

The results of the report have revealed that 12 out of 13 cost reduction indicators are ahead or on target with the milestone set out in 2015. 

It has also confirmed that the industry has quickly adopted innovative methods to significantly drive cost reduction, particularly in the areas of turbine design and project maintenance.

Britain's Energy Coast, a business support organisation for energy innovation, has welcomed the news and continues to believe that Cumbria's wind energy industry could play a vital part in the future of the UK's energy supply. 

Joe Martin, commissioning manager for Britain's Energy Coast, believes Cumbria to be a leader in renewable energy generation.

He said: "We are blessed with some great natural resources like good wind speed. 

"We also have an energy literate population who can champion both mid- and large-scale generation that feed renewable energy directly into the grid.

"This helps us lead in the area now and will help lower the region's carbon footprint further when new nuclear comes online and we see both baseload and intermittent power coming from low carbon sources."