Mark BoggisLOWESTOFT is in a prime position to capitalise as the government announced this morning (Friday) that the world's second-largest windfarm will be built 15 miles off the north Suffolk and Norfolk coast.Mark Boggis

LOWESTOFT is in a prime position to capitalise as the government announced this morning (Friday) that the world's second-largest windfarm will be built 15 miles off the north Suffolk and Norfolk coast.

The Crown Estate has confirmed the winners of the bids to build round three windfarms around the UK, including a �15bn project - known as Zone 5 Norfolk - near Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.

And as revealed in today's Journal, prime minister Gordon Brown announced that a consortium involving Scottish Power and Vattenfall, a state-owned Swedish power group, had secured the rights to the area, one of nine put up for auction by the Crown Estate.The prime minister said that announcement will make a 'significant and practical contribution' to cutting the UK's carbon emissions and create tens of thousands of jobs.

The companies awarded the rights to develop offshore wind in nine different areas include major energy companies such as E.ON, RWE Npower, Scottish Power and Centrica.

The nine zones include sites in the Irish Sea, the Bristol Channel, the Moray Firth, the Firth of Forth, off the coast of Norfolk and west of the Isle of Wight, and construction could begin by 2013-2015.

Mr Brown said: 'Our policies in support of offshore wind energy have already put us ahead of every other country in the world.

'This new round of licences provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity.

'The offshore wind industry is at the heart of the UK economy's shift to low carbon and could be worth �75 billion and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020.'

The developers which have been awarded the right to exclusively develop the zones, and the potential renewable energy capacity they could deliver, are as follows:

Moray Firth Zone - Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd which is 75pc owned by EDP Renovaveis and 25pc owned by SeaEnergy Renewables - 1.3 GW;

Firth of Forth Zone - SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd equally owned by SSE Renewables and Fluor - 3.5 GW;

Dogger Bank Zone - the Forewind Consortium equally owned by each of SSE Renewables, RWE Npower Renewables, Statoil and Statkraft - 9 GW;

Hornsea Zone - Siemens Project Ventures and Mainstream Renewable Power, a consortium equally owned by Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Project Ventures and involving Hochtief Construction - 4 GW;

Norfolk Bank Zone - East Anglia Offshore Wind Ltd equally owned by Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft - 7.2 GW;

Hastings Zone - Eon Climate and Renewables UK - 0.6 GW;

West of Isle of Wight Zone - Eneco New Energy - 0.9 GW;

Bristol Channel Zone - RWE Npower Renewables, the UK subsidiary of RWE Innogy - 1.5 GW;

Irish Sea Zone - Centrica Renewable Energy and involving RES Group - 4.2 GW.