There is a plan afoot to develop the world’s largest offshore windfarm off the coast of Scotland. The farm will be so big it will generate enough electricity to power 40 percent of households in Scotland.
The massive windarm will contain 339 turbines over 300 square kilometers of ocean near Caithness. The proposed deep water wind project will be 50 percent larger than the huge London Array project off the coast of Kent.
Permission is being sought to build the £4.5 billion, 1.5 gigawatt project by Moray Offshore Renewables, which is a collaborative venture between Respol (a Spanish oil company) and EDP (a Portuguese power group). China’s state-owned Three Georges Corporation has recently acquired a 21 percent stake in EDP.
The project will be located more than 12 miles offshore to be able to take advantage of the abundant wind resources in the outer Moray Firth, project director Dan Finch has said. This should also help to neutralize some vocal opposition to the project from the likes of Donald Trump, who has expressed more than a little concern that “ugly and dangerous” wind turbines off the coast will spoil the view from his new golf resort.
Finch estimates that the windfarm will be able to generate enough electricity for 800,000 to 1,000,000 households. This could stop 3.5 million to 4.5 million tonnes of C02 per year from entering the atmosphere, compared to coal-fired power generation.
Further, this isn’t the only wind power scheme being planned. RenewableUK has said that another 4.5 gigawatts of offshore wind power capacity could follow this year alone, with a total of 18 gigawatts coming online within eight years. However, the organization has pointed out that this can only happen if the policy contained within the upcoming Energy Bill goes through.
Image CC licensed by Jedimentat44: Offshore windfarm
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