DOVER MP Gwyn Prosser has called on the Government to encourage more investment in clean technologies.

He made the call at Langdon Cliffs as he met with campaigners from Friends of the Earth to welcome the news that the wind farm planned for the Thames Estuary is to go ahead.

The London Array, consisting of 270 turbines 12 miles off the Kent coast, will be the largest wind farm in the UK, providing one per cent of UK’s electricity, and saving 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year

It will produce enough electricity to power 750,000 homes.

Mr Prosser said that the Government should strengthen its proposals for a new Climate Change Law by including annual targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

“London Array is good for the planet and good news for East Kent,” he said. “The project will bring new jobs, new opportunities for regeneration and clean renewable power for the whole of the nation.

“This new wind farm is totally in line with the government’s Climate Change Bill. But it needs to be even more radical and I am encouraging my government to increase investment in carbon-free technologies further by including annual targets for cutting carbon dioxide in this important new Bill.”

Friends of the Earth says that if the UK is going to meet the new European targets of providing 20 per cent of total energy from renewables by 2020, the government must do more to encourage development of offshore wind farms.

Jill Cliff, of East Kent Friends of the Earth, said: “Renewable energy could deliver a clean, secure and reliable supply of energy for the UK. But the Government must give investors greater certainty that we are moving towards a low carbon economy.”