The largest offshore wind farm in the world just got a deadline. By 2012, the London Array should be powering 750,000 homes in the London metro area, the U.K. says, hinting at the potential to generate and sell massive amounts of clean electricity to continental Europe in coming years.
The stretch of Scottish coastline used for the array has now been dubbed “the Saudi Arabia of renewable power,” which not everyone is pleased about. But it does emphasize just how important the development could be to Europe’s clean energy strategy — and the U.K.’s economy.
The array is a joint venture between E.ON, Masdar and DONG Energy — representing the U.K., Abu Dhabi, and Denmark, respectively. The group just announced $2.9 billion (2 billion Euros) in partnerships with Siemens, JDR Cable Systems and Nexans for power generation and transmission equipment.
The first stage of the project will build 630 megawatts of capacity (roughly 25 percent of London’s power needs), with an additional 1 gigawatt planned. This is if the facility is running at full speed. Most wind arrays operate at 30 percent on average. Construction is slated to begin at the end of 2011. Overall, the development could reduce emissions from the region by 1.9 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.
The array, including 341 turbines supplied by Siemens, will occupy about 95 square miles 12 miles off shore in the Thames Estuary, east of London. It will require more than 120 miles of underwater cables linking electrical components to the turbines, to be provided by JDR Cable Systems.
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