The largest offshore wind farm in UK reached full workload

The largest offshore wind farm, the UK's London Array,  constructed around 20km off the coasts of Kent and Essex on a 245km2 site, has now reached full workload after the final turbine was commissioned a couple of days ago.

The 175 installed turbines are now exporting power to UK's grid, the 630MW first phase of the London Array is expected to produce enough green electricity to power nearly half a million homes a year. This output is enough to provide clean electricity to power approximately half a million UK homes. It has been also said to reduce climate change causing CO2 emissions by over 900,000 tonnes a year.

The second phase of the construction is also a possibility, and if this gets green light it would add enough capacity to bring the total to 870MW.

UK, the global offshore wind energy leader, doesn't plant to stop here as there are variety of other large offshore wind energy projects being developed in UK waters. These include areas such as Teesside, Gwynt y Mor off the coast of North Wales and Gunfleet Sands off the Essex coast

UK needs to keep momentum in order to maintain its lead in offshore wind energy development. Offshore wind energy is really the Britain's only ticket to remain competitive in global clean energy race.

Offshore wind energy will not only help offset UK's carbon emissions, it will also give big boost to economy in form of new jobs (construction and maintenance). The recent reports claim that offshore wind energy industry could create more than 75,000 new jobs in Britain till the end of this decade.

A lot of it, though, will depend on the Energy bill, the vital legislation that is going through the Parlament. The UK government needs to ensure the long-term stability for UK's wind energy development, beyond the 2020 because in these uncertain economic times potential investors want long-term safety.