The Crown Estate, (property owned by the sovereign) which owns the sea-bed and doesn’t require planning consent, has 11 sites that have the right combination of water depth, wind velocity and wind constancy among other environmental considerations.

Off shore wind farms are more expensive than on-shore, not least because it requires billions of pounds to put in place the cabling infrastructure to bring the electricity back to shore.

Although Brighton is unlikely to be involved in the manufacture of the turbines there will be employment opportunities for installation and maintenance not only of the turbines but also the cabling and the interface with the national grid. Newhaven is also ideally placed to use its port facilities for access to the turbines which could be in place by 2015.