Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) is a public municipal utility, owned by the citizens of Gainesville. Like many utilities, private and public alike, GRU has traditionally provided power with a combination of coal- and natural gas-fired generation. In 2002, a resource study indicated that substantial additional generation capacity would soon be needed to meet the city’s projected energy load. Gainesville, a university town, has a very green orientation. The Gainesville City Commission, being sensitive to climate change issues, chose to defer the need for additional generation by pursuing a path of energy load reduction through increased energy efficiency, coupled with adoption of renewable energy for additional capacity needs.

The field is a 9,481-acre operating stripper well oil field offering a full complement of associated facilities and equipment on-site. There have been 1,319 wells drilled in the field with 589 of them plugged and abandoned. Of the 730 remaining well bores, 300 are producing wells in nine producing reservoirs ranging in depth from 250 to 5,500 feet. The remaining wellbores are temporarily shut-in or are used for testing.

Turbines of the new Burbo Bank offshore wind farm. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The difficulties in accessing and maintaining offshore wind farms around the UK means that “offshore communities” will have to live and work near the turbines on accommodation facilities similar to oil rigs.

That is the view of experts at the Carbon Trust who have identified accessing turbines in high seas as one of the main barriers to the successful development of the government’s £100bn offshore wind strategy.