June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the government will encourage utilities to build 7,000 wind turbines for generating electricity, part of a program to cut pollution and reduce Britain's dependence on fossil fuels.

The target will ``turn the North Sea and other coastal waters into the equivalent for wind power of what the Gulf of Arabia is for the oil industry,'' Brown said in a speech in London today.

The measures suggest the scale of the challenge the government faces in meeting European Union targets to produce 15 percent of Britain's energy from solar and wind power and other renewable sources by 2020, compared with less than 4 percent now.

Brown said British industry will have to invest 100 billion pounds ($197 billion) in the next 12 years to clean up the environment and to generate power with less pollution than coal, oil or natural gas. He expects wind power will create 160,000 jobs in the U.K. and a new generation of nuclear power stations will add another 100,000 jobs within the next 12 years.

``If the government actually means it this time, then we could create jobs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and use less gas, and in the long run our power bills will come down,'' said John Sauven, director of Greenpeace, the environmental pressure group. ``It won't happen without action.''

Incentives for Industry

Business Secretary John Hutton, speaking at the same event as Brown, today formally asked companies and environmental groups for proposals on how to achieve the government's goals.

To encourage small companies to set up a new generation of environmentally-friendly power plants, the Department for Enterprise, Business and Regulatory Reform said it will sweep away regulatory barriers that prevent individuals from selling electricity to the national grid. Planning restrictions will be streamlined, speeding decision making on big utility projects.

``It will mean an improvement in our energy security because we will have a greater diversity of supply,'' Brown said. ``Just as America led the way in the industrial age creating a mass of high-paying 'blue collar' jobs, I want Britain to lead the way in the environmental age creating `green collar' jobs.''

Unlike coal and natural gas, most renewable energy sources don't produce carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming.

Brown said new technologies will mean ``a reduction in energy bills for consumers, and ``the creation of hundreds, indeed thousands, of new business opportunities.''

Sheltering Consumers

The measures also are aimed at sheltering consumers in the long-term from the effects of surging oil prices. The U.K. government's popularity has fallen to the lowest since the end of World War II after a surge in oil prices to $140 a barrel ate into the earnings of consumers and economic growth.

``Meeting a 15 percent energy target for renewables by 2020 will deliver deep cuts in our carbon emissions,'' said Mark Williamson, the director of innovations at the government-funded Carbon Trust, which promotes ways to reduce carbon emissions. ``It will also be a giant step forward in enabling technologies, like offshore wind and marine energy, to reach commercial maturity.''

The EU's target will require as much as 35 percent of U.K. electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2020, according to the country's Association of Electricity Producers. Utilities may need to spend 100 billion pounds on energy networks and power plants to achieve this and replace older power plants, according to the industry group.

Target for 2010

Britain won't meet its own 2010 target for 10 percent of electricity to be generated by renewable sources, Richard Slark, a director of Poyry Energy Consulting, said in November. As much as 8 percent may be achievable by the end of the decade, he said.

The government also is streamlining its planning laws to make power plants easier to build. British Energy Plc waited six years for the go-ahead to build the Sizewell B nuclear station, which entered service in 1995.

``A low-carbon society will not emerge from 'business as usual,''' Brown said. ``Increasing our renewable energy sources will require national purpose and a shared national endeavor.''

Britain must replace a third of its power-generation plants by 2020, because most of its current nuclear stations are nearing the end of their lives. Brown says he favors nuclear power and renewable energy to cut back on the use of fossil fuels.

In 2007, about 37 percent of Britain's electricity came from coal-fired power plants compared with 36 percent from natural gas, 18 percent from nuclear and 4 percent from renewable sources, according to the government's business department.

Later this year, the U.K. will consult business about a new ``supplier's obligation, which will give companies incentives ``to make profits from reducing, not increasing demand'' for electricity and gas, Brown said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net; Paul Dobson in London at pdobson2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 26, 2008 06:16 EDT