A new wind farm, 90 square miles large, has been approved for construction off the coast of the UK. If built, it will become the largest offshore wind farm in the world, which should make all UK Tree Huggers proud.
It will hopefully be built off the coast of Kent, and should be powering a massive 25% of London homes by 2010. However, large cost increases [2] could still threaten the project. The original estimate of £1.5 billion ($3 billion) has since risen to £2 billion ($4 billion) and the project is currently in the tendering process. "We are now in the middle of the tendering process and we will be in a position to give the green light - or not - in the second half of next year," said an Eon spokesperson.
Unfortunately, as is often the case with wind farms, the planning was affected by NIMBYism. The local council and residents voted against the scheme, and te RSPB lodged a complaint that the turbines could threaten birds [3] that occasionally winter in the area, but thankfully the project overcame this. If it can also overcome the financial issues, then this will become a really exciting and important project.
Eon is also already running a wind farm off of Great Yarmouth (near where I grew up), and is in the middle of a £1 billion spending programme on sustainable power sources. The turbines in that area don't make any noise that is audible from the coast, look quite attractive and case no significant problems at all. Let's hope that this plan succeeds too. ::The Guardian [4] ::Picture Source [5]