World's largest offshore wind farm officially opened

The world’s largest offshore wind farm, the London Array,  has been officially opened by the Prime Minister David Cameron. 

The huge 100km² installation - which is located in the outer Thames Estuary - features 175 Siemens 3.6MW turbines with a combined generating capacity of 630MW.  The facility is expected to produce enough electricity to power over half a million UK homes each year.

The site has been developed by a consortium made up of DONG Energy, Denmark’s biggest energy company, which has a 50 per cent share; E.On Renewables, which owns 30 per cent; and Masdar,  the Abu Dhabi state-owned renewable energy company, which owns 20 per cent of the facility.

Originally, Shell had a large share in the venture, but the Anglo-Dutch oil giant pulled out in 2008 throwing the future of the project into doubt until Masdar came on the scene.

Construction began in July 2009 when work started to build a new onshore substation on the north Kent coast. The first offshore foundation was installed in March 2011, and the final turbine was installed in December 2012. The facility began generating power for the grid in October 2012