Biggest offshore wind farm to operate from next year

The biggest offshore wind farm in the world which is close to the Suffolk coast is expected to start generating electricity in 2009 prior to the complete installation of all the one hundred and forty wind turbines. Development of the Greater Gabbard wind farm twenty six kilometres off the shoreline will begin next year and is scheduled to be complete by late 2010.

Work on a piece of land at Sizewell where a substation is supposed to be built is planned to begin in July. This is after fierce resistance to a proposed location close to Home Farm south of the Sizewell Gap Road forced the relocation to Sizewell Wents. One hundred employment opportunities will be created.

A distance of one kilometre will separate the wind turbines and where they are located they will be parallel to Clacton, Harwich and Felixstowe. The area was found suitable due to the high wind speeds experienced there, lack of any known environmental problems, a shallow water depths as well as a viable link to the National Grid through Sizewell.

A connection line will run below the ocean to the new substation while another connection line will link this with the Sizewell A electricity station.

A project manager, Mike Scott expressed confidence that the project would work since their feasibility studies had shown that the wind speeds were constant. The project manager added that the wind farm would not be visible from the coast of Suffolk. He further disclosed that the wind farm would generate the same amount of electricity as the Sizewell A electricity station.

www.nationalgrid.com