The last of the 175 turbines at the 630MW London Array 1 development has been installed, marking the end of major construction activities. Installation commenced in January 2012 and has been completed by the MPI Discovery and A2SEA’s Sea Worker and Sea Jack. This year alone, 84 foundations, 175 turbines, 178 array cables and three export cables have been installed at the project site, in the outer Thames estuary.
The wind farm began generating power in October 2012 and 55 of the Siemens 3.6MW turbines are now supplying power to the national grid. It is set to become fully operational in spring 2013. The focus now is on the commissioning and testing of the remaining turbines, before the project is handed over to the operations and maintenance team.
The London Array consortium partners comprise DONG Energy with 50%, E.ON (30%) and Masdar (20%). Benj Sykes, head of DONG Energy’s UK wind business, said the installation of the final turbine marked "another landmark in this flagship project for the UK and for DONG Energy".
Once it is fully commissioned, London Array 1 will become the largest operational offshore wind farm in the world. If approved, the second phase of development, London Array 2, would bring the project's total capacity to 870MW.
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