Britain will need to bring 112GW of offshore wind online in the next 14 years – almost treble its current 2030 target of 40GW – to reach the goal of a 78% cut in CO2 emissions that underpins the current ambition to reach net zero by mid-century, according to modelling by technology group Wärtsilä Energy.

More than 6GW of new wind plant will need to be installed at sea each year to 2035, it found in a new report, while at the same driving ahead a “rapid increase in the amount of flexible capacity”, such as battery energy storage and thermal power plants, to balance the variability of such massive additions of renewable power.