Jump to content

London Array

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 194.28.249.49 (talk) at 17:13, 19 October 2010. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Template:Infobox Power Station The London Array is a planned offshore wind farm in the outer Thames Estuary in the United Kingdom. Of 1,000 megawatt (MW) capacity, it is expected to become the world's largest offshore wind farm.[1] The site is 17.77 miles (28.60 km) off the North Foreland on the Kent coast in the area of Long Sand and Kentish Knock,[2] and will cover 90 square miles (230 km2) between Margate in Kent and Clacton in Essex. Phase 1 with 175 turbines and 630 MW is planned to deliver power to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[3]

Description

The completed wind farm will consist of 341 wind turbines. The first stage will consist of 175 SWT-3.6 turbines and two offshore substations.[4] The turbines are to be assembled at Port of Ramsgate. All turbines and also offshore substations will be erected on 177 monopiles. In addition, the first stage includes 220 kilometres (140 mi) of 150 kV subsea export cable connecting the offshore substations to the shore and 210 kilometres (130 mi) of 33 kV array cables to link the turbines to each other and to the offshore substations.[5]

The proposers say this is enough to power a quarter of the homes in Greater London or the entire counties of Kent and East Sussex.

Contractors

Turbines will be supplied by Siemens Wind Power.[4] Their foundations will be built by the joint venture between Per Aarsleff and Bilfinger Berger Ingenieurbau. The same company will supply and install monopiles.[5] Generators will be installed by MPI and A2SEA by using an installation vessel MPI Adventure and a jack-up barge Sea Worker.[6] Two offshore substations will be designed, fabricated and installed by Future Energy, a joint venture between Fabricom, Iemants and Geosea, while electrical systems and onshore substation work will be undertaken by Siemens Transmission & Distribution. The subsea export cable will supply by Nexans and array cables by JDR Cable Systems. Both cables will be installed by Global Marine Systems.[5]

Developer

Ownership is 50% DONG Energy, 30% E.ON UK Renewables and 20% Masdar.[3] The wind farm was planned to be built by London Array Limited, a consortium of Shell WindEnergy Ltd, E.ON UK Renewables and DONG Energy.[7] In May 2008, Shell announced that it was pulling out of the project.[8] It was announced in July 2008 that E.ON UK and DONG Energy would buy Shell's stake.[9] Subsequently on 16 October 2008, London Array announced the Abu Dhabi-based Masdar would join E.ON as a joint venture party in the scheme. Under the agreement, Masdar purchased 40% of E.ON's half share of the scheme, giving Masdar a 20% stake in the project overall.[10]

Financial support and timetable

In March 2009, the backers agreed on an initial investment of €2.2 billion.[11] Offshore work is due to start in early 2011 and the proposed completion date for the first stage is in 2012. The second stage (bringing the revised total to 271 turbines) will add enough capacity to generate 1,000 MW for 750,000 homes.[10][12] Financing of phase 1 have been achieved through the European Investment Bank and Danish Export Credit Fund with 250 million British pounds.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ London Array official site
  2. ^ London Array boundary map (PDF)
  3. ^ a b c Jensen, Mette Buck. DONG borrows GBP 250mio Ing.dk, 9 June 2010. Retrieved: 9 June 2010.
  4. ^ a b "Siemens to provide 175 wind turbines for the world's largest offshore wind farm London Array" (Press release). Siemens AG. 2009-05-19. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
  5. ^ a b c "Trio hand out London Array prizes". Upstream Online. NHST Media Group. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
  6. ^ "London Array signs final major installation contracts for phase one" (Press release). London Array. 2010-02-04. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
  7. ^ London Array project introduction
  8. ^ Shell pulls out of key wind power project, Financial Times, 01 May 2008
  9. ^ "E.ON and DONG Energy become 50:50 partners in world's largest offshore wind farm" (Press release). The London Array. Retrieved 2008-08-16.
  10. ^ a b "E.ON and Masdar have joined forces as partners in the London Array offshore wind farm project" (PDF) (Press release). The London Array. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  11. ^ Teather D, "Thames offshore wind farm gets green light from investors", The Guardian, 13 May 2009
  12. ^ UK's London Array Given Green Light
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=London_Array&oldid=391673834"