Centrica has predicted that the planned new generation of UK wind farms is unlikely to generate a profit.

Just last week fellow energy giant Shell announced that it was pulling out of the London Array wind farm project, with many observers believing that economic factors were the principal reason for its reversal of interest in the 1,000 megawatt site.

Now Centrica, which owns British Gas, has warned that the chances of wind energy making money for operators are "marginal", a situation which could deter energy firms from investing in the sector.

"The economics at the moment make the returns marginal," explained Mr Sambhi, Centrica's director of power business unit.

"The worrying trend is that if the manufacturing costs continue to increase, then I think that the wind target is under threat."


Despite this, Centrica is still committed to constructing three new wind farms across the country over the next few years, and its Lynn and Inner Dowsing project is set to deliver power into the National Grid within the next few days.

The government aims to produce 33 gigawatts of power from offshore wind annually by 2020.