After serious concerns that plans for the world’s largest wind farm might be shelved, the London Array project has been given a new lease of life and the final investment it needs to start construction.  This is cause for celebration in the UK renewables industry, and breathes fresh life into the green energy revolution.

The project was put to one side after Shell pulled out of the consortium of investors last year, having already been granted planning permission and all the groundwork completed. This left EON, Dong Energy and the Masdar Initiative short of funding, a bill which EON have now agreed to foot.

The wind farm will be the largest in the world, set to produce 1,000 MW of energy with the first turbines coming online for the Olympics. Covering 90 sq miles off the coast of Essex, the first phase of the project will prevent the release of 1.9 million tonnes of CO2.

Greenpeace have praised the government’s role in the turnaround of this project by giving much needed support to offshore projects by opening up grid connections and incentivising renewables through the ROC scheme. This is a financial mechanism that supports renewable energy, and it was announced in last month’s budget that payments for offshore wind projects would be doubled. This was the green light that the London Array consortium needed to get going.

Some good news that is warmly welcomed at Good Energy.