The opening of the London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind power plant, with 174 Siemens wind turbines installed in the Thames estuary, Siemens is well-positioned to continue to lead the way in offshore wind power development in the UK and EU. Their massive turbines, rated at 3.6 MW and with rotor diameters of 120 meters, supply clean electricity through high-voltage submarine cables to a base at Ramsgate Port built just to maintain and operate these turbines. Siemens also supplied the grid connections with two offshore substations in the North Sea, and the one onshore station.
“London Array is the world’s largest offshore wind power plant and marks a milestone in the development of offshore wind power. This project underscores the leading position of Siemens in this attractive growth market.” – Peter Löscher, President and CEO of Siemens AG
Siemens also installed Denmark’s largest offshore wind power plant, Anholt, with 111 Siemens wind turbines, and recently built an offshore platform in the North Sea, which will link the Nordsee Ost and Meerwind wind power plants to the mainland and convert and transmit the electricity to shore.
To meet the growing energy needs of the UK and Northern Europe, further expansion of offshore wind power plants will be needed, with Germany planning for 10 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2020, and the UK planning for up to 18 GW of wind power capacity by the same target date.
Siemens has already installed over 1100 offshore wind turbines (3.4GW capacity), and a total of 4.6 GW of offshore wind power capacity projects in the works. Check out this amazingly beautiful video for more info!
[*Full Disclosure: This post was supported by Siemens.]