E.ON wind farms granted approval

The Government has granted approval to the pilot tidal project in the Humber estuary proposed by E.ON. The pilot project is set to construct one of the biggest ever wind farms in Britain.

E.ON’s plans however face opposition from the Ministry of Defence who are worried that the eighty three turbines to be located approximately eight kilometres out to sea off East Yorkshire will meddle with radar defences since turbines are known to cause “clutter” on radar screens.

E.ON hopes to start constructing the seven hundred million pound wind farm in 2010 with generation of three hundred megawatts of electricity set to begin in the year 2012.

John Hutton the Business Secretary has set the target of generating more than thirty three gigawatts of electricity from offshore wind farms by the year 2020. The plans have been labelled unrealistic since the high steel prices, other components and the shortage of vessels required to develop them makes such projects extremely expensive.

Paul Golby the chief executive of E.ON, United Kingdom said that the project would not only contribute significantly to the fight against climate change but would aid in ensuring a dependable and clean supply of electricity for households and organisations in the United Kingdom. E.ON runs over twenty wind farms in the United Kingdom but the Humber Gateway will be its biggest.

A trial scheme using tidal power has also been given the go-ahead by the Government.  Pulse Tidal’s test project, which has received public funding of up to eight hundred and seventy eight thousand pounds, has a capacity to harness underwater currents to produce up to 0.15 megawatts of electricity.

www.eon-uk.com