POWER December 2014 - 30

TOP PLANTS
London Array Offshore Wind Farm,
Outer Thames Estuary, UK
Owners/operators: E.ON/DONG Energy/La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec/ Masdar
Courtesy: London Array Ltd.
The 175-turbine London Array wind farm was built on schedule, on a scale once thought
unfeasible for the emergent offshore wind sector-and despite economic headwinds of
the global recession and rough weather and sea conditions. Its success has been vital
for the UK, which has anchored its energy future with offshore wind power.
Sonal Patel
I
n 2001, the year that the world's largest
offshore wind farm was conceived, the
outlook for offshore wind was foggy. A
paltry 95 MW of capacity had been installed
worldwide-mostly in Denmark-and a
number of northern European countries were
contemplating how to fund proposed installations
comprising thousands of megawatts.
Only a handful of projects were taking shape
outside Europe, including the much-hyped
but yet-to-be-built 468-MW Cape Wind project
proposed for offshore Massachusetts.
In the UK, negotiations between the British
Wind Energy Association (now RenewableUK)
and the Crown Estate, landlord of
the UK's coastline extending 12 nautical
miles (22.2 kilometers [km]) offshore, had
finally resulted in the completion of the
country's first offshore wind farm-a nearshore
two-turbine evaluation project in Blyth
Harbour in northeast England. The Crown
Estate had meanwhile launched the first (of
now three) leasing rounds, involving projects
of no more than 30 turbines.
Round 2, launched in 2003, would involve
larger projects sited in deeper waters farther
offshore in the Greater Wash, Greater Thames,
and Irish Sea-including the £2 billion ($3 bil30
lion)
London Array project. Round 3, released
later in 2010, would cover projects planned for
nine zones across the UK.
As of October 2014, the UK has connected
21 more offshore wind projects. Today, it
leads the world with 3,653 MW of offshore
capacity produced by 1,075 wind turbines.
That's more than 50% of installed offshore
wind capacity in the European Union. The
country's offshore wind farm sizes have also
gotten progressively bigger since 2010, when
the 300-MW Thanet project came online. In
2012, the 504-MW Greater Gabbard project
began operations, and it was followed by the
completion in April 2013 of the 630-MW
London Array.
From here, the UK's ambitions only get
larger. Plans to meet 25% of its power needs
with renewables by 2020 underscore offshore
wind's role, requiring at least 15% of the nation's
energy mix to come from turbines at
sea. Consent for three projects that would
be larger than the 175-turbine London Array-the
1,200-MW East Anglia project, the
1,000-MW Inch Cape project, and 700-MW
Rampion project-was only garnered earlier
this year.
That means London Array will remain
www.powermag.com
the UK's largest operational offshore wind
farm-possibly the world's, too-for at least
five more years.
Casting Off
When conceived in 2001 with the establishment
of a joint venture of TXU Europe, Farm Energy,
ABB, Powergen, and Royal Dutch Shell, the
plan was for London Array to grow into a larger,
two-phase project. The project's ownership, too,
has evolved; its current shareholders are German
investor-owned energy firm E.ON (30%), Danish
energy group (and established offshore wind
farm leader) DONG Energy (25%), the United
Arab Emirates' Masdar (20%), and Canadian
pension fund manager La Caisse de dépôt et
placement du Québec (25%).
The Array's original developers say the project
grew out of environmental feasibility studies
commissioned to gauge a vast site's suitability to
accommodate 1 GW or more of turbines. They
were also seeking a site about 15 km offshore
but with a maximum water depth of 25 meters
(m) to avoid prohibitive foundation costs.
The site ultimately selected as the most
appropriate for development covered an area
of 245 km2, about 20 km off the coast of England's
Kent and Essex counties, where the
POWER | December 2014
http://www.powermag.com

POWER December 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER December 2014

Contents
POWER December 2014 - Cover1
POWER December 2014 - Cover2
POWER December 2014 - Contents
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