The London Array is the world’s largest offshore wind farm, located in the outer Thames Estuary in the United Kingdom. It has a capacity of 630 megawatts (MW), enough to power almost half a million homes. The project was developed by a consortium of energy companies including Dong Energy, E.ON UK, and Masdar. Construction began in March 2011 and was completed in 2013. The London Array is operated by Dong Energy.
The London Array is located 20 miles (32 km) off the coast of Kent, England, in an area known as the Outer Thames Estuary. The site covers an area of approximately 100 square kilometers and includes 175 turbines arranged in rows with a spacing of 5 kilometers between each row. The turbines are spaced 2 kilometers apart within each row. The total height of each turbine from sea level to tip is approximately 150 meters (490 ft).
The London Array has a nameplate capacity of 630 MW, making it the largest offshore wind farm in the world when it was completed in 2013. It consists of 175 Siemens SWT-3.6-120 wind turbines with a rotor diameter of 120 meters (394 ft) and hub height of 80 meters (262 ft). Each turbine has a capacity of 3.6 MW and can generate up to 12 GWh annually – enough to power approximately 3,500 homes for one year.
In terms of electricity generation, the London Array is expected to offset 925 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually – equivalent to taking 475 thousand cars off the road every year. This is equivalent to planting 1 million trees or saving 210 million liters (56 million gallons) of petrol annually