Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now) (376 MW, Ireland)

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-walney-offshore-farm-world-biggest.html

The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney farm is presently the biggest offshore wind farm in the world. According to DONG Energy, which is part of the venture responsible for the Walney farm, the project is approximately 15km from the coastline of Walney Island in a north west to south-easterly direction.

The farm has 102 turbines and a capacity of 367 megawatts, said to be enough power for 320,000 homes. The joint venture behind the Walney wind farm involves the Denmark-based DONG Energy, which is a leading energy group in northern Europe, and several other companies. The breakdown is DONG Energy (50.1%), SSE (25.1%) and OPW ( 24.8%).


According to reports, DONG Energy has around 30 per cent of the offshore wind market throughout Europe. Ed Davey, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, has voiced enthusiastic support of the offshore wind farm. Britain, with more than 1,500 megawatts of offshore wind, intends to see a capacity boost to 18,000 megawatts by 2020. Over the near term, Davey predicted that 2012 through 2014 will be all about the "industrialization" of offshore wind.

DONG likewise attaches importance to the UK push; the company notes that the scale of the offshore wind farms envisioned by the UK is larger than in any other country in the world. Following the Walney opening, another big event scheduled is the London Array off the coast of Kent, to debut by the end of the year. Observers say it will dwarf the Walney farm, to become the world’s largest offshore wind farm, powering 750,000 homes. The first phase will power two-thirds of all the homes in Kent.

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And what is happening here in America?