UK BUILDS WIND & ECONOMY W/WORLD’S BIGGEST OFFSHORE PROJECT

Offshore wind farm to provide jobs for Thanet
Hannah Ratcliffe, 25 March 2010 (BBC News)

"The world's largest wind farm, set to be built off the east Kent coast, is expected to create hundreds of new jobs.

"The London Array wind farm will have approximately 300 turbines, the energy from which could power 750,000 homes…The £2 billion project…[will employ 90 people directly and] up to 200 jobs will be created through extra trade for local businesses…Thanet College is already planning summertime ‘taster’ courses for anyone interested in working in the wind turbine industry…"

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"The wind turbines stand on 50 metre steel piles which are 4.5 metres in diameter. Each pile is pushed 25 metres into the seabed…This is the foundation which supports the turbine's tower and blades, the total height of which is 115 metres above sea level.

"The London Array wind farm will be built in the Thames Estuary, about 12 miles off the coast of Margate, alongside the existing Thanet offshore wind farm…Thanet District Council has been in support of the plans since September 2006…"

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"In May 2008, Shell pulled out of the London Array consortium but two months later energy groups DONG and E.On decided to make it a fifty-fifty split…They have since been joined by Masdar Initiative , Abu Dhabi's leading investor in renewable energy, making it a three-way consortium again.

"On 12 May 2009, permission for the project was finally granted with environmental concerns about the wind farm's impact on bird migration addressed."