How it all began
The London Array project was born in 2001, when a series of environmental studies in the outer Thames Estuary confirmed the area is a suitable wind farm site. Two years later, the Crown Estate gave London Array Ltd a 50 year lease for the site and cable route to shore.
Planning consent for a 1GW offshore wind farm was granted in 2006, and permission was granted for the onshore works in 2007. Work on Phase One started in July 2009 when we began building the onshore substation at Cleve Hill in Kent. Offshore construction started in March 2011 when the first foundation was installed. The first turbine was installed in January 2012, first power was achieved in October that year and the final turbine was installed in December 2012. London Array should be fully operational by Spring 2013.
Phase One
Facts and Figures:
- An offshore area of 100km2
- 175 wind turbines
- Two offshore substations
- Nearly 450km of offshore cabling
- One onshore substation
- 630MW of electricity
- Enough power for nearly half a million homes a year – two thirds of the homes in Kent
- CO2 savings of 925,000 tonnes a year
A proposal was submitted to The Department of Energy and Climate Change in October 2012 to allow the Grampian Consent condition to be lifted and allow Phase 2 of the project to go ahead.
