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Largest Offshore Wind Farm Opens in England

Largest Offshore Wind Farm Opens in England
Largest Offshore Wind Farm Opens in England

The world’s largest offshore wind farm opened on Friday off the northwest coast of England when Danish energy group Orsted unveils the Walney Extension project. The wind farm has a capacity of 659 megawatts, enough to power almost 600,000 homes and overtakes the London Array off England’s east coast which has a capacity of 630 MW, BBC reported.

Walney Extension is made up of 87 turbines built by Siemens Gamesa and MHI Vestas, and covers 145 square kilometers, which is equivalent to around 20,000 football pitches. The 40 eight-megawatt MHI Vestas turbines being used stand 195 meters tall and are the largest wind turbines in operation globally. Orsted said they have been optimized to generate as much as 8.25 MW each.

Matthew Wright, Orsted UK managing director, told Reuters in an interview that Britain’s offshore success was due to a combination of strong wind speeds and shallow waters in the North Sea and Irish Sea as well as continued support from the government.

“For the last 10 years, governments of all colors have supported renewable energy and offshore wind in the UK, leading to a thriving industry,” he said.

Britain is the world’s largest offshore wind market, hosting 36% of globally installed offshore wind capacity, data from the Global Wind Energy Council showed.

 

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