Green Light for World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm

One of the world’s largest offshore wind farms is now set to be built off the coast of East Anglia, England, after the government gave the go-ahead earlier this week.

East Anglia One wind farm 300x1911 Green Light for Worlds Largest Offshore Wind Farm

It’s called East Anglia One and it is anticipated that the 1.2GW project will support £520m of investment and create nearly 3000 jobs. It is a joint venture (50:50) between Vattenfall and Scottish Power Renewables. The area of the farm will be 300 square kilometres and the 240-325 turbines (approximately) will produce renewable energy sufficient to power over 800,ooo homes. The final timeline can now be anticipated; offshore installation work will begin in 2018 and the first power should come ashore a year later in 2019.

The UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey 300x1801 Green Light for Worlds Largest Offshore Wind Farm

The UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said the project would provide a significant boost to the East Anglian economy, with the Department of Energy and Climate Change predicting that once built the project could be worth £10m a year to the region’s economy. He said:

“East Anglia and the rest of the UK have a lot to gain from this development. The project has the potential to inject millions of pounds into the local and national economies and support thousands of green jobs. Making the most of Britain’s home grown energy is crucial in creating job and business opportunities getting the best deal for customers and reducing our reliance on foreign imports.”

The project will dwarf even the current largest UK wind farm- the London Array. Detailed negotiations will take place to determine the Ports which could support the project.

Keith Anderson, chief executive of ScottishPower Renewables, hailed the development as “the largest renewable energy project ever to receive planning consent in England and Wales”.

GunnarGroebler Vattenfall 181x3001 Green Light for Worlds Largest Offshore Wind Farm

Gunnar Groebler, head of Vattenfall’s continental and UK renewables division, said the project represented a boost to the UK’s wider offshore wind industry:

“The investment in competitive UK and regional supply chains is essential to cost reduction in the sector but that investment will only be made if there is a pipeline of projects. Therefore the consent of a scheme like East Anglia ONE – which should be warmly welcomed by everyone – will boost business confidence and help secure more affordable, more reliable and greener power in the UK electricity mix.”

It seems that the UK offshore wind farm business will now go into overdrive. East Anglia One is just the first of six projects within the same zone. If all added together the farms will have a combined capacity of up to 7.2GW- enough to power more than 4.6 million British homes. But it may not all be plain sailing in the offshore wind. UK Ministers have signalled that the next generation of  large offshore projects will have to slash costs by up to a half if they are to successfully compete with other forms of low carbon generation.

Sizewell nuclear power plant 300x2131 Green Light for Worlds Largest Offshore Wind Farm

The location of the landfall site has not been finally determined. It was originally thought that Sizewell would be the ideal location (there is a nuclear reactor there generating and distributing power, but the connection at Sizewell is not possible because sufficient network capacity does not exist to accommodate the expected wind farm connections. The transmission network at Sizewell has already reached its capacity based on other current or planned power generation in that area.