The London Array is an 175 turbine 630MW Round 2 offshore wind farm located 20 km off the Kent coast in the outer Thames Estuary in the United Kingdom. At the time of its construction it was the largest offshore wind farm in the world.The London Array project has been started in 2001, when a series of environmental studies in the outer Thames Estuary confirmed the area as 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, with the onshore works approved in 2007.Construction of the onshore substation at Cleve Hill started in July 2009 and was completed in October 2012. Offshore construction started in March 2011, when we installed the first of 177 foundations for the project.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.
Turbines were supplied by Siemens Wind Power.www.electricfacts.blogspot.in Their foundations were built by the joint-venture between Per Aarsleff and Bilfinger Berger Ingenieurbau. The same company supplied and installed the monopiles. Generators were installed by MPI and A2SEA by using an installation vessel TIV MPI Adventure and a jack-up barge Sea Worker. Two offshore substations were designed, fabricated and installed by Future Energy, a joint venture between Fabricom, Iemants and Geosea, while electrical systems and onshore substation work was undertaken by Siemens Transmission & Distribution. The subsea export cable was supplied by and array cables by JDR Cable Systems. The array cables and the export cables were installed by VSMC Nexans.
Turbines were supplied by Siemens Wind Power.www.electricfacts.blogspot.in Their foundations were built by the joint-venture between Per Aarsleff and Bilfinger Berger Ingenieurbau. The same company supplied and installed the monopiles. Generators were installed by MPI and A2SEA by using an installation vessel TIV MPI Adventure and a jack-up barge Sea Worker. Two offshore substations were designed, fabricated and installed by Future Energy, a joint venture between Fabricom, Iemants and Geosea, while electrical systems and onshore substation work was undertaken by Siemens Transmission & Distribution. The subsea export cable was supplied by and array cables by JDR Cable Systems. The array cables and the export cables were installed by VSMC Nexans.
The wind farm started producing electricity at the end of October 2012. All 175 turbines of phase 1 were confirmed fully operational on 8 April 2013, and the wind farm was formally inaugurated by the Prime minister David Cameron on 4 July 2013.
Phase 2 planning:
A second phase was planned which would have seen a further 166 turbines installed to increase the capacity to 1000MW. However, the second phase was scaled back and finally cancelled in February 2014 after concerns were raised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds about its effect on a local population of red-throated divers.
