The world’s second largest offshore wind farm was officially opened by the UK’s Energy and Business minister Michael Fallon on 7 August.
The 500 MW Greater Gabbard, located off the coast of Suffolk, cost £1.3 billion to build and consists of 140 wind turbines. It will double in size when the nearby Galloper wind farm extension is completed in 2017.
Energy and Business Minister Michael Fallon commented: "The UK leads the world in offshore wind power generation with more capacity than the rest of the world combined, and we want to see this sector grow even further. "Greater Gabbard has already brought jobs and wider benefit to the local community, with hundreds of people employed on site, and a £150,000 fund created to support local initiatives, which will be managed by Suffolk Community Foundation.
"This sector is an engine of our economy. By the end of this decade, tens of thousands of additional jobs could be created in the supply-chain for offshore wind throughout the UK."
The Offshore Wind Industrial Strategy, published last week, sets out government and industry’s joint plans to help build a substantial UK supply chain for offshore wind. Investment by the government includes £20 million from the Regional Growth Fund to improve the UK wind industry’s supply chain, and £46 million to streamline innovation projects among industry, government and academia and help companies to bring new products to market.
This, alongside the draft strike prices for renewable energy, and the long-term contracts offered to investors under the UK’s Energy Bill, is intended to provides a stable regime attractive to investors in renewables.
