London Array back on track

Funding has been agreed for the first phase of the world's largest offshore wind farm.

Rodsand Wind Park I

DONG Energy, E.ON and Masdar have today announced that they will invest £1.9bn in building the first 630MW phase of the London Array offshore wind farm in the Thames Estuary.

Once complete, the scheme will be the the world's largest, and the first 1GW, offshore wind farm. The project will supply enough power for around 750,000 homes - or a quarter of Greater London homes - and displace the emission of 1.9m tonnes of CO2 every year.

The scheme will be built around 12 miles off the coasts of Kent and Essex. The wind farm will be installed on a 90 square mile site and will be built in two phases. The consortium hopes the first phase of 630MW will be completed and generating in 2012. The first phase will consist of 175 turbines. The second phase will add enough capacity to bring the total to 1,000MW

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said: "This is another green light for green energy.  It's a vote of confidence in the support the Government has put into backing renewable energy.

"The UK is already the world's leading offshore wind power and this multi-billion pound project will help keep us there, cut our carbon emissions and contribute to secure energy supplies."

Onshore work is now due to start in the summer, with offshore work due to start in early 2011.

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