The RWE-operated 630MW London Array (pictured) is celebrating its tenth year in operation.
When is was commissioned in 2013, the project was the world’s largest offshore wind farm.
Located 20km off the north Kent coast in the Outer Thames Estuary, the site comprises 175 Siemens 3.6MW turbines generating enough clean electricity to power around 500,000 British homes.
It has since generated (to end of October 2023) 22,743,640MWh (or 22.7 TWh) of renewable energy.
London Array’s best ever production month was December 2015 (364,512MWh) and in 2021, output from London Array powered over 25% of the total UK lighting.
It is maintained and operated from the Port of Ramsgate.
At a cost of €2.2bn to build, total spend on supply chain was significant with over 75 companies being engaged in the construction process, using local Kent suppliers where possible
Around 6,700 individual jobs were created during the construction process
Currently around 73 employees and a similar number of contractors have jobs at the operations and maintenance base in Ramsgate
Since 2013, around £500,000 has been made available in the form of community benefit funding, and, in addition, the wind farm has sponsored a number of local events and organisations.
Richard Crowhurst, RWE UK offshore operations manager South, said: “The success of London Array has demonstrated that largescale offshore wind projects not only have a significant role to play in securing the UK’s energy supplies while also meeting contributing to Government renewable energy targets.
“But also in making a meaningful contribution to the local community it operates in with our team at site living and working locally.”