E.ON announces details of new Humber Gateway wind farm
Energy giant E.ON has announced today that its Humber Gateway wind farm, located off the East Yorkshire coast, will consist of a 73 turbine array that will generate up to 219MW of electricity - enough to power up to 170,000 homes.
The news has been welcomed by industry and government, with Prime Minister David Cameron describing the investment as a significant vote of confidence in renewable energy and in the UK market.
He said: "E.ON's investment will create a thousand jobs in the next few years, spearhead development of the UK's fast growing offshore wind supply chain and strengthen links between the UK and Germany in renewables and grid."
Humber Gateway will be located 8km off the East Yorkshire coast, just north of the mouth of the river Humber. Further works at the site will begin in March with construction of the onshore substation, with a view to completing the project in Spring 2015.
The project aims to create up to 1,000 jobs during construction and a further 30 roles to operate and maintain the wind farm when it is operational.
"This isn't just an important announcement for E.ON, but is also a significant announcement for the UK," said Dr Tony Cocker, ceo of E.ON UK. "Increasing the proportion of electricity we generate from low carbon, renewable sources is a vital part of meeting the energy challenges we all face."
E.ON's announcement forms part of a €2billion investment programme in offshore wind, encompassing Humber Gateway (219MW) off the coast of the UK, Amrumbank (288MW) off the coast of Germany and Kårehamn (48MW) off the coast of Sweden.
Amrumbank will be E.ON's first commercial offshore wind farm in Germany and will use Siemens 3.6MW turbines. Humber Gateway and Kårehamn will use new Vestas V112 3.0MW turbines.
