Expansion of windfarms off coast

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The giant windfarms would cover almost 6000 sq km (2300 sq miles) of the North Sea, it is claimed.

The scale of massive new wind farms planned off the coast of Suffolk and Norfolk has been revealed by the BBC.

An area of 2,300 sq miles (5,900 sq km) off Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth has been earmarked for windfarms by 2020.

It could produce up to 6000 megawatts of generating capacity - five times the current output of Sizewell B nuclear power station, it is claimed.

The government target is to produce a fifth of the UK's electricity through renewable energy by 2020.

One local company, SLP Engineering in Lowestoft, hopes to win new business by building the huge underwater structures that would be needed for windfarms further off-shore.

The new windfarms will be bigger and further out to sea than current sites.

Announcements on government contracts to build the windfarms are expected by the end of the year.