London Array to power London households by 2012

The year 2012 is the deadline for the London Array, the largest offshore wind farm in the world, to power 750,000 households in the metro area of London, said the UK government.

The London Array, considered as the ‘Saudi Arabia of renewable energy’, is now utilizing the stretch of Scotland’s coastline. The UK government informed that the project has the capability of generating and selling immense amounts of clean electricity to continental Europe in the coming years.

A 630MW power-generating array will be built during the initial phase of the project. The wind farm is assumed to produce an estimated 25 per cent of the total power capacity needed in London.

The offshore project is a joint venture between three energy companies Masdar, E.ON and DONG Energy – representing the UAE, the UK and Denmark, respectively. The installation of the wind turbines is scheduled to begin by the end of 2011. The development of the wind farm is expected to reduce the region’s carbon dioxide emission by 1.9 million tons per annum.

The $2.9 billion wind farm project will be provided by JDR Cable Systems, Nexans, and Siemens with power production and transmission tools.

The array, occupying about 95sqm 12 miles offshore of eastern London, will include the 341 wind turbines to be supplied by Siemens. The company had signed a five-year contract worth £1 billion to provide the required hardware of the London Array.

The project will require as well over 120 miles of submerged cables to be provided by JDR that will link electrical mechanisms to the turbines. Meanwhile, the Norwegian firm Nexans will build the transmission lines between the array and power grid, which includes fibre optic lines that carry hefty volumes of data.