World’s biggest offshore wind farm given OK in England
The world’s biggest offshore wind farm has been given the go-ahead and will soon be built 12 miles off the coast of southeast England. The quaintly named London Array, being developed by a consortium that includes Shell WindEnergy, will consist of 341 turbines. A separate 100-turbine wind farm in the Thames estuary was also given the OK yesterday. Together, the two projects could power nearly one million residences, or about one-third of the homes in Greater London. (So they think they’re greater than us? Wanna fight?) Once the obligatory scuffling with locals over siting and increased traffic and noise is complete, London Array is likely to come online in 2011; the wind farm in the Thames estuary should be finished up more quickly, by 2008. With the addition of the two wind projects, Britain will become second only to Denmark in offshore wind generation, and will take a significant step toward its goal of increasing renewable energy resources by 500 percent by 2020. Clean energy — it’s a breeze!
