World's largest offshore wind farm commissioned

(Photo: Agencija Headline)

The world's largest offshore wind farm London Array, for which Siemens delivered 175 wind turbines and an inter-array cabling, was ceremoniously put into operation last week. Together with the Dong Energy company, one of the owners, Siemens will be in charge of servicing wind turbines in line with a long-term agreement.

This wind farm is situated at the mouth of the River Thames, about 20 kilometers away from the coast of Kent and Essex. It is a property of a consortium consisting of companies Dong Energy, E.ON and Masdar. With a total capacity of 630 megawatts (MW), this wind farm will generate enough electricity to satisfy the needs of 500,000 British households. London Array will reduce the annual emission of carbon-dioxide by about 900 tonnes, which is equivalent to taking 300,000 passengers cars off the streets, Siemens said in a release.

Siemens delivered and installed 175 wind turbines fitted with a 120m rotor and rated at 3.6 MW. The company also provided one onshore substation and two offshore substations in the North Sea. The electric energy generated by offshore wind turbines is transferred to the coast using high-voltage submarine cables. According to the release, London Array's operations and maintenance base was opened March 2012 in the Port of Ramsgate.

Siemens is a market leader for offshore wind farms, inter-array cabling and offshore wind farm servicing. The company has already installed over 1,100 offshore wind turbines with a total capacity of 3.4 GW, two thirds of which are situated in Great Britain.