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Prime minister David Cameron has today cut the ribbon on the London Array, the world's largest offshore wind farm, in a move that serves to underline Number 10's support for the UK's burgeoning wind energy sector.
The 175 turbine project located in the Thames Estuary, owned by DONG Energy, Masdar and E.On, boasts 630MW of capacity, making it comfortably the largest offshore wind farm in the world. It has been fully operational since April, but today it was officially opened by the prime minister alongside climate change minister Greg Barker.
"This is a great day for Britain and a big win for renewable energy," Cameron said at the opening ceremony. "London Array shows you can build large scale renewable energy projects right here in Britain. This is because when it comes to clean energy, the UK has one of the clearest investment climates globally".
London Array is the first major green power scheme to be inaugurated by Cameron since he took office in 2010. The move will be seen as politically significant given the opposition renewable energy projects have faced from some Conservative backbenchers. Industry sources welcomed Cameron's decision to attend the event, arguing that it sends a signal to green energy investors that Number 10 remains committed to driving clean energy investment.
RenewableUK chief executive, Maria McCaffery, said Cameron had given a "ringing endorsement" to Britain's offshore wind industry.
"Such a strong signal from the very top of our political establishment will help to put an end to the siren calls from the naysayers who've failed to appreciate the scale of the opportunity Britain has here," she said in a statement. "We need to maintain our pole position in offshore wind energy to reap the full economic and environmental benefits."
London Array has taken the crown of the world's largest offshore wind farm from SSE and RWE's 500MW Greater Gabbard project off the East Anglian coast. The UK currently has more than 3GW of offshore wind power capacity, but is planning to install another 15GW by the end of the decade.
The news was welcomed by Greenpeace executive director John Sauven, who said London Array demonstrates the UK's ability to deliver large scale renewable energy projects. However, he urged Cameron to accelerate the government's efforts to tackle climate change and cut emissions across the energy sector, by agreeing to a target in the Energy Bill that would decarbonise the electricity sector by 2030.
"We're now world leaders in an industry that some wrongly dismissed in the past as a nice-to-have," he said in a statement. "But if offshore wind is to continue to provide jobs and economic growth for the UK and reach price parity with nuclear by the 2020s, David Cameron needs to do more than ribbon-cut. He needs to give the sector long-term certainty by agreeing to cut carbon completely from our electricity sector."
In related news, RWE has also annouced that it has installed the last wind turbine at the 325MW Thornton Bank offshore wind farm off the coast of Belgium, confirming that the project is now expected to be commissioned in the coming weeks.
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