Wind power: A lifeline or gamble for islands?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2026
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Highly exposed to volatile fossil fuel prices and intensifying climate change, island nations around the world are starting to ask: could they make a fortune from the gusty seas that surround them?
Advances in offshore wind technology are prompting island communities to consider whether they can become energy independent - or even electricity exporters.
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Presented and produced by Tyler Dunn
Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.
Each episode is a 17-minute, daily deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.
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(Picture: Offshore wind farm on the edge of an island. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.6 | Hello and welcome to the island of Jersey and today's Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:15.0 | I'm Tyler Dunn and I'm looking out to a patch of sea in the English Channel |
| 0:19.0 | that could one day generate as much energy as a small |
| 0:23.0 | nuclear reactor. Offshore wind farms are getting more advanced and capable of producing more power |
| 0:29.6 | and they're raising an interesting question for islands across the world. Is it possible to turn a |
| 0:35.5 | gusty bit of ocean into a serious economic opportunity? |
| 0:42.1 | Islands are land poor and sea rich. |
| 0:45.9 | They often lack the natural resources to power their own economies, |
| 0:49.6 | but is offshore wind technology about to change that? |
| 0:53.0 | We import a lot of fossil fuel. It does make sense that we turn towards local renewables. |
| 0:59.0 | This has become one of the cheapest sources of electricity. |
| 1:03.0 | Some islands want to build offshore wind farms that are so big they could become energy exporters, |
| 1:09.0 | potentially generating serious revenue for their governments. |
| 1:12.0 | That's a substantial amount of money for an island of this size. |
| 1:14.7 | And it's really going to be something that helps to diversify the economy and bolster our finances. |
| 1:19.8 | But established island industries warn they could lose out. |
| 1:23.6 | Fishermen are being pushed to the side for big business and we don't feel that it's right. |
| 1:29.2 | That's all coming up on Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:40.1 | Let's start here in Jersey. |
| 1:42.2 | It's a small, British, self-governing island, not far from the northern coast of France. |
| 1:48.6 | It's probably better known for its offshore finance industry than offshore wind. |
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