Full Power for World's Largest Offshore Windfarm

---

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - The first phase of the world's largest offshore windfarm has been fired up in the Thames Estuary in England.

All 175 wind turbines at the London Array project have been fully commissioned and the windfarm is capable of generating 630-megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough for approximately 470,000 homes. Owned jointly by Dong Energy A/S (Fredericia, Denmark) (50%), Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) (20%) and German energy giant E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany) (30%), London Array sits 20 kilometers (km) off the coasts of Kent and Essex on a 245km2 site.

Phase One covers an area of 90km2. A proposed second phase could add another 240 MW, boosting overall capacity to 870 MW. The original goal was to have 1,000 MW of generating capacity but this was reduced following the discovery in 2011 of a large population of rare birds on the site of the planned expansion. For additional information, see October 18, 2011, article - Birds Threaten Largest Offshore Windfarm.

The final turbine for phase one was installed last December. For additional information, see December 20, 2012, article - Final Turbine in at Giant London Array Windfarm.

"This is the final major milestone of the construction phase and the culmination of more than two years' offshore construction work which began in March 2011 with the installation of the first foundation," noted Project Director, Richard Rigg."It has been a complex operation but I am delighted that the commissioning of the windfarm has now been completed on schedule, despite the worst of the winter weather."

Tony Cocker, Chief Executive Officer of E.ON UK, added: "London Array is a significant achievement in renewable energy. The world's largest operational offshore wind farm will be capable of generating enough energy to power nearly half a million homes and reduce harmful CO2 emissions by over 900,000 tonnes a year. It's been a tough time for the team working on site. The recent bad weather and north easterly winds have whipped up the waves preventing access to the site so this milestone is true reward for their hard work."

Dong Energy claimed that the lessons learned at London Array will help it drive down the costs of offshore windfarm development.

Benj Sykes, Country Manager for Dong Energy's U.K. Wind business, said: "As we now look to our pipeline of future projects, Dong Energy is determined to drive down the costs of our offshore wind farms to €100 per megawatt hour for projects we'll be sanctioning in 2020".

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.