Hooray Hooray for the London Array!

On 4 July, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron opened the London Array and said it was “a great day for Britain and a big win for renewable energy”.

The Danish company DONG Energy and its partners, Germany’s E.On and UAE’s Masdar, have just completed the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, the London Array. There are no fewer than 175-turbines across almost 40 square miles, 12 miles north off the Kent coast. The project cost £1.9 billion. The London Array has a 630MW capacity it is capable of powering half-a-million homes a year.

But this is an environment-friendly operation, especially in respect of the bird wildlife. A planned second phase, to add another 240MW, will only be allowed if the impact on the birds from first phase proves not to be too damaging. DONG must await studies before it can proceed.

 Offshore wind has a big cost for energy bill-payers in the UK. It currently costs almost three times the market price of power of about £50 per megawatt hour (MWh). It has been said that the London Array would not have been built if it was based on price alone, but British coalition ministers have backed a major expansion of offshore wind to help Britain meet its green targets. The total now stands at 3.3GW of installed capacity now, with a top target of 16GW in 7 years’ time.

London Array offshore win 008 300x1801 Hooray Hooray for the London Array!

For every MWh of electricity that the London Array generates over the next 20 years, it will get subsidies, currently worth about £90, on top of the power price – all paid for by British consumers. Certainly the Array has its critics.  It is inevitable that High subsidies are part of the equation:  Offshore wind is a “young” technology compared with, say, nuclear, or the fossil fuel industry.

An industrial strategy on the issue is expected soon. Ministers also want future wind projects to have at least half of their costs spent in the UK- not just the 10% that was the case with the London Array. Most of the parts were shipped in from elsewhere in Europe.

The tips of London Array’s turbines reach 482ft above the sea. Their blades span almost 400ft in diameter. But DONG plans even bigger turbines; those planned to be  built off Yorkshire, North East England, will have a diameter of 509ft.

Secretary of State Edward Davey said:

“London Array is a big deal for offshore wind, a big deal for UK electricity supply and a big deal for inward investment into the UK. It’s a bulk generator of power feeding into the diverse mix on our grid. Half a million homes will be London Array powered. This is good news for keeping our lights on and reducing carbon emissions. Everyone involved is to be congratulated for this achievement.”

Prime Minister London array 300x2001 Hooray Hooray for the London Array!

The Prime Minister was also full of  pride and praise:- he said it was a triple win:

“First of all it’s a huge win for Kent. This project has been built by some of the bravest seaman, some of the most talented engineers, some of the hardest workers and it’s going to continue to bring benefits to people in Kent for many, many years to come. The second thing that it’s a big win for is renewable energy. Sometimes people wonder, ‘Can you really have renewable energy projects at scale?’ What the London Array shows – powering half a million homes, the biggest offshore wind farm anywhere in the world – it absolutely shows that you can do scale renewables and you can do them right here in Britain. And that leads me to the third and I think the most important win of all and it’s a very big win for Britain. Sometimes people wonder, ‘Can we in the West do big projects any more? Can we do the big investments? Isn’t that all happening somewhere else in the east and south of our world?’. If you look at the UK you can see we can do big projects. Not only did we do a superb Olympics, but under London Crossrail is the biggest construction project anywhere in Europe. Not far from here is London Gateway, which is the biggest port construction taking place anywhere in Europe and here you have the biggest offshore construction anywhere in the world. I think this demonstrates Britain is a great place to invest.”