The government gives go-ahead to wind farms capable of providing power for a third of London homes

The government has given the green light to two major offshore wind farms in the Thames Estuary.

The government says the London Array and Thanet schemes will generate 1.3GW of electricity, enough to power a million London households.

The London Array wind farm will be situated 20km off the Kent and Essex coast between Margate and Claction. It will consists of 341 turbines and cover an area of 232km2.

The £500m Thanet wind farm will be located 7km from North Foreland on the Kent coast and consists of 100 turbines covering an area of 35km2. The farm will be developed by Warwick Energy and will be completed by 2008 providing electricity for about 240,000 homes.

Alistair Darling, the secretary of state for trade and industry, said: “We expect this announcement will be the first of a number of large-scale offshore wind farms in the UK and will provide real impetus for the continued developments in the offshore renewable energy sector that will benefit generations to come."

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