On Thursday the world’s largest off shore wind farm opened off the British coast consisting of 100 wind turbines capable of supplying enough electricity for 200,000 homes a year.
The farm is located off the coast of Kent in Southern England and is part of a key renewable energy initiative spearheaded by the previous British government.
Vattenfall a Swedish based company will operate the farm after investing around $1.38 billion into the project.
Waters off the coast of the United Kingdom are an alluring place for wind farm operators because of their constant ocean winds. An offshore turbine located around the United Kingdom has the capability to produce 50-percent more power than a similar one elsewhere in Europe.
Europe is seeing a boom in offshore wind energy with the construction of 16 farms currently underway. The Thanet farm covers approximately 13.5 square miles which is roughly the equivalent to 4,000 football fields. The nearest turbine is located 7.4 miles from the coast of Margate.
Along with a renewable, efficient power supply Vattenfall stated that a rise in tourism is expected to bring more tourists into the region eager to see the site of the windmills in the distance.
Impressive as the Thanet Farm is it will not remain the largest windfarm for long, in late 2012 or 2013 the so-called London Array will start to generate electricity just north of London. Owners of the Array farm predict it to be the world’s first 1 gigawatt offshore windfarm.
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