17 February, London – The United Kingdom’s Department of Energy and Climate Change has approved an application to construct the world’s largest offshore wind farm off the coast of Yorkshire, in north-east England. The wind farm is expected to support over 900 jobs and provide enough electricity to power 2 million homes.
The Forewind consortium – comprised of SSE, RWE, Statkraft and Statoil – estimates that the project could generate more than £1.5bn for the UK economy. Although the UK does not produce large wind turbines, almost half of the costs associated with building and operating the wind farm are expected to be spent buying services and products from UK businesses.
At 130 kilometres from the shore, the wind farm will be the furthest offshore that has ever been attempted. It will cover an area of 430 square miles (1,114 square kilometres), and have up to 400 wind turbines with a maximum capacity of 2,400 megawatts. The world’s current largest offshore wind farm – the London Array – has 175 turbines.
For more information see the Department of Energy and Climate Change or the Forewind website.