England Opens Largest Onshore Windfarm

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - England's largest onshore windfarm has been officially commissioned by Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey.

The £98 million ($148 million) Keadby windfarm in Lincolnshire sports 34 turbines with a total generating capacity of 68-megawatts (MW), giving it a 3 MW advantage over the 65 MW Scout Moor windfarm in Lancashire. Now fully operational, the windfarm is capable of generating enough power for approximately 47,000 homes.

The project uses V90-2.0 MW turbines from Danish manufacturer Vestas (OTC:VWYSF) (Aarhus, Denmark) and is owned by SSE plc (Perth, Scotland).

"Onshore wind is the cheapest form of low carbon power we have," said Davey. "It powers millions of homes and provides thousands of green jobs for people across the U.K.. But the benefits of onshore wind projects like Keadby don't stop there. As a direct result of this development local projects are able to access the £8.5 million fund SSE has set up to support communities in North Lincolnshire over the next 25 years."

Paul Smith, SSE Managing Director Generation, added: "Today marks the culmination of SSE's £98 million construction project to build England's largest ever onshore wind farm and its opening reflects SSE's determination to provide the energy people need in a reliable and sustainable way, contributing significantly to the UK economy.

The largest onshore windfarm in the U.K. is the 322 MW Whitelee project in Scotland.

SSE, along with partners RWE npower Renewables (Swindon, England), Statoil ASA (NYSE:STO) (Stavangar, Norway) and Statkraft AS (Oslo, Norway), are behind the Forewind consortium that recently received the green light to build the largest renewable energy project in U.K. history. Permission was granted for the Dogger Bank Creyke Beck offshore windfarm in the North Sea. Comprising two windfarms, each with a potential generating capacity of 1,200 MW, they have the potential to power 1.8 million homes. For additional information, see February 25, 2015, article - Green Light for Largest Renewables Project in U.K..

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