Connecting the wind

Siemens Energy has won an €84m (£66m) contract from Fluor to connect the Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm to the British power grid.

With a capacity of 500MW, the Greater Gabbard project will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

Siemens will also supply 140 wind turbines for the project, which will be constructed 25km off the coast of Suffolk in the Outer Thames Estuary.

The wind farm will be commissioned in two phases, with the entire construction scheduled for completion in 2011.

The east coast of England is a key area for offshore wind projects with approximately 6.5GW of capacity currently planned out of a total of 10GW for the whole of the UK.

The Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm project will make a significant contribution to reducing CO₂ emission by almost 1.5 million tonnes annually, which is said to be the equivalent of removing 350,000 cars from the road every year.

The wind farm project is owned by Airtricity, the renewables arm of Scottish and Southern Energy.