London Array
Region: Europe
Country: United Kingdom
Date: 2008-02-07
Funded By: Private
MEP has been advising the proposed London Array Wind farm development situated in the Thames Estuary on fisheries and related issues. London Array, a proposed offshore wind farm, applied for its various planning consents and licenses in June 2005. This followed the completion of extensive environmental studies which began as far back as 2001. The wind farm would be built more than 20km (12 miles) off the Kent and Essex coasts, in the outer Thames Estuary.
A consortium called London Array Limited is developing the project. The company comprises the following three partners: Shell Wind Energy Ltd, E.ON UK Renewables and CORE Ltd. Between them, these partners have a wealth of experience in developing offshore wind projects.
Key elements of the London Array project are: • Up to 271 turbines, installed over a four year period • Associated offshore and onshore substations • Cabling (between turbines and to shore). The wind farm would be constructed in phases, and when fully complete would generate up to 1,000 MW of electricity. This is enough to meet the electricity needs of 750,000 homes – around a quarter of Greater London or all of the homes in Kent and East Sussex.
The scope of work carried out by MEP has included drafting a disturbance payments scheme for fishermen and related industries reliant on fish catches from the proposed London Array site. Over 100 fishermen in both Kent and Essex will potentially be affected and agreement has now been reached with the majority of the fishing communities on the quantum of the disturbance payments.