Plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm equipped with nearly 300 turbines have been approved for the Triton Knoll site off the coast of Lincolnshire near Skegness. The £3.6 billion project will consist of 288 turbines and will dwarf the 175-turbine London Array opened by David Cameron last week. When its complete the wind farm will be able to generate 1.2GW of electricity, enough to power some 820,000 homes and will be supported by a massive substation to be built in the Lincolnshire countryside at Bicker Fen.
“It is the biggest project consented so far anywhere in the world” said Nick Medic, Director of Offshore Renewables at Renewable UK, “and shows the UK's offshore sector maturing to take on new challenges of scale. Following world leading projects such as the London Array, opened last week, Triton Knoll will demonstrate what offshore wind can do for the UK on a grand scale. The planning consent today keeps the country firmly at the forefront of offshore wind development and will help secure up to 20 per cent of electricity from offshore wind per year by 2020.”
The wind farm is being constructed by RWE Npower Renewables and will be located twenty miles off the coast from Mablethorpe. Underground cables will connect the substation to the wind farm. The scheme as a whole will generate around 500 jobs during the construction phase with a further 325 jobs during operation. However, the Triton Knoll project manager, Jacob Hain, said that the company’s final investment decision depended on the government’s finalisation of the Energy Bill and electricity market reform programme.
“In order to realise these ambitious offshore projects, the Government's Electricity Market Reform must deliver a regulatory framework which is bankable to attract the required levels of investment” Mr Hain added.
A second wind energy project, to be built by Vattenfall in Wales, was also approved yesterday. The £400 million onshore wind farm will be built at Pen y Cymoedd in South Wales and will consist of 76 turbines with construction due to start next year and completion scheduled for 2016.
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Can running the world on solar and wind get any more ironic than under present weather conditions? Here in the UK, with 8 GW of onshore and offshore wind turbine capacity, wind power trickling into the National Grid right now is 0.12 GW - we couldn't run the Isle of Wight on solar and wind at the moment. And, It's hardly crept over 1 GW for a week now! When we get this additional £3.6 billion'worth of wind turbines, when these weather conditions repeat - as they inevitably will - output will leap up to 1.38 GW. It's a good job we've got a steady 7.5 to 8 GW of 24/7, on demand nuclear power to make up the difference, with emissions-free electricity. Can't rely on wind turbines to keep the lights on or save the planet, can we?
