NASAClick to embiggen.
NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite took this photo in the spring of 2013. It’s of the London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm — 175 turbines, which generate enough electricity to power up to 500,000 homes, NASA says. It’s huge, and getting bigger:
With construction operations working out of Ramsgate, the Array is eventually supposed to grow to 245 square kilometers (95 square miles). The wind farm sits on two natural sandbanks, with water as deep as 25 meters (80 feet). The site was chosen because of its proximity to onshore electric power infrastructure and because it stays out of the main shipping lanes through the area.
It’s so carefully and systematically arranged, from above it looks like someone painstakingly stuck white pins on a swirling board of color. Man, what are you NIMBY types freaking out about? This is GORGEOUS.
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