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Britain’s third largest offshore wind farm opens

Thursday, 17 June 2010 15:33

Image: EWEA / Winter

One of Britain's largest offshore wind farms has officially opened, taking the country another step forward to meeting its 2020 renewable energy targets. The Gunfleet Sands offshore wind farm, located in the Thames Estuary, consists of 48 wind turbines off the Essex coastline. According to DONG Energy, the company which built the wind farm, the turbines will produce 172 megawatts of electricity - enough to power 125,000 British households annually. The first green power from the wind farm was transmitted to shore in August 2009, and the project went into production in March 2010. The new wind farm pushes the UK's offshore wind capacity past the one gigawatt milestone, providing energy for 700,000 homes. It has taken 10 years to reach that goal and now industry and government hope to build 25 gigawatts by the end of the decade.

At the start of this year, the Crown Estate, which owns the seabed, announced plans to build another nine offshore wind farms off UK coastlines by 2020, which will need thousands more wind turbines. The UK government hopes that offshore wind will be a major source of renewable energy in the years to come, boosting the low carbon economy and energy security. For more information on energy saving and generation visit the Environment and greener living section on the Directgov website.

Source: Directgov, Crown Copyright