London Array, a proposed offshore wind farm, applied for its various planning consents and licences in June 2005. This followed the completion of extensive environmental studies which began as far back as 2001. The wind farm would be built more than 20km (12 miles) off the Kent and Essex coasts, in the outer Thames Estuary. A map of the location is available for download.

A consortium called London Array Limited is developing the project. The company has three shareholders: E.ON, DONG Energy and Masdar, who between them have a wealth of experience in developing offshore wind projects. See the About Us section for more information.

Key elements of the London Array project are:
• Up to 341 turbines, installed over a four year period
• Associated offshore and onshore substations
• Cabling (between turbines and to shore)

The wind farm would be constructed in two phases with phase one having 175 turbines.  When fully complete the project would generate up to 1,000 MW of electricity. This is enough to meet the electricity needs of 750,000 homes – around a quarter of Greater London or all of the homes in Kent and East Sussex.

When fully operational, it would make a substantial contribution to the UK Government’s target of providing 15.4% of all electricity supply from renewable sources by 2015. Based on the current schedule, it is expected that the project would represent nearly 7% of this target. It would also avoid the emission of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide over its life.