World’s Largest Offshore Wind Goes Live, Begins Feeding UK Grid

[n2doc]

With the flip of a switch, the $1.2 billion Thanet Offshore Wind farm boosts UK wind energy capacity by 30%, making it the largest producer of offshore wind energy in the world.

This story has a theme I never get tired of reporting. Whether it is the opening of the largest solar thermal plant in the U.S., or the completion of the world's biggest tidal energy plant, when it comes big chunks of new renewable energy capacity coming online, I feel obliged to report the news--partially for my own sanity--especially when so much of environmental reporting has historically been a bit doom-and-gloom.

Seven miles off the coast of Kent at its closet point, the $1.2 billion Thanet Offshore Wind Farm today officially began powering the UK grid with 300 megawatts of new renewable energy capacity -- enough capacity to provide electricity and heat for the equivalent of 200,000 British homes. For the time being, the wind farm is the largest offshore wind farm in the world. Other offshore wind projects in the pipeline, like the 420-megawatt Cape Wind facility, approved by the U.S. Department of Interior this past spring, will be even larger than Thanet.

Today's connection boosts the UK's total offshore wind capacity by more than 30 percent, making the island nation the largest producer of offshore wind energy in the world.



http://earthandindustry.com/2010/09/worlds-largest-offshore-wind-farm-begins-feeding-uk-grid/