IEEE SPectrum reports that the long awaited London Array wind farm has commenced operation offshore England - World's Biggest Offshore Wind Farm Switched On in Britain.

Around a year and a half ago, the Walney wind farm in the Irish Sea started spinning and prepared to relish the title of being "biggest in the world." It ended up enjoying that status a bit longer than expected, but the London Array, off the coast of Kent, now leaves Walney and its 367 megawatts in the dust.

Some numbers: 175 turbines. 630 megawatts. Half a million homes. 100 square kilometers. 450 kilometers of offshore cabling.

In other words, it's pretty big. The speed at which these enormous projects are popping around in the waters around the U.K. is impressive, especially considering the ongoing difficulties with getting even a single offshore turbine up and running in the U.S. (Cape Wind might have one by next year! Maybe!) There are now around 20 distinct offshore wind farms around the U.K., generating enough power for 2.3 million homes; when all offshore turbines that are spinning, in construction, or planned are combined, they total 15 gigawatts of capacity—about a quarter of the entire U.S. onshore wind power capabilities.

The London Array, owned by DONG Energy, E.ON, and the U.A.E.'s Masdar, looks to keep it's world's-biggest title for a bit longer than Walney held out, thanks to its already massive size and a phase 2 plan to bring it up to a full gigawatt. And some of the other big projects underway in the region won't be able to compete with that sort of girth: West of Duddon Sands farm will get to 389 MW, for example, while the Gwynt y Mor farm off the coast of Wales will reach 576 MW.

ReNews also has a report on a new 1.2GW wind farm planned for offshore the east coast of England - Hornsea enters the fray.

Smart Wind has submitted its application for the 1.2GW Hornsea phase one wind farm off the east coast of England. ... Hornsea Project One formally consists of the 600MW Njord and the 600MW Heron project. Offshore construction on both projects could start as early as 2016.

TreeHugger reports that construction of a large new wind farm has finished in Texas - World's Largest Wind Farm (781.5 MW) Completed in Texas by E.ON Renewables.

Living up to its bigger is better (for better and worse) reputation, Texas can now boast having the world's current largest wind farm. E.ON Climate & Renewables has announced the completion of the 781.5 MW Roscoe wind complex, which is expected to generate enough power for more than 230,000 average homes:

Sticking with the bigger is better theme: E.ON boasts that the completion of the Roscoe wind farm took an expenditure of more than $1 billion, negotiations with more than 300 individual landowners and management of 500 workers. ...

Though it's still a couple years from coming online, E.ON also touted the fact that it has (finally!!!) begun construction on the London Array offshore wind farm, the first 630 MW phase of which alone will make it the largest offshore wind farm in the world.

The NYT reports that the London Array wind farm looks like it will be built after all - $3B pledge jump-starts massive offshore wind project.

The world's largest offshore wind farm, the London Array, will begin construction this summer after the British government doubled the incentives for offshore wind energy, the project's main owner, Denmark's DONG Energy, said today.

The 1,000-megawatt Thames Estuary behemoth had been in doubt after Royal Dutch Shell PLC pulled out of the scheme last year because of rising costs, leaving DONG with a 50 percent stake, Germany's E.ON with 30 percent and Abu Dhabi's renewable energy fund, Masdar, with 20 percent.

Now the three partners have pledged to invest $3 billion for the 630-megawatt first phase of the project, which will be completed in time to deliver wind energy to the London Olympics in 2012.

DONG's CEO, Anders Eldrup, said the U.K. government's announcement last month of increased support for offshore wind power prompted the consortium to decide to build the wind park.

"The decision to build the London Array offshore wind farm is a cornerstone in DONG Energy's strategy to increase the proportion of electricity generated from renewable energy sources," Eldrup said. "DONG Energy has built approximately half of all offshore wind farms in operation in the world today."

The British government provided £525 million in the 2009 budget for offshore wind subsidies between 2011 and 2014 by increasing the number of renewables obligation certificates, or ROCs, available for offshore wind generation. The United Kingdom already has the most installed offshore wind power generation capacity in the world.

ROCs are the main support scheme for renewable electricity projects in the United Kingdom. It places an obligation on U.K. suppliers of electricity to get an increasing proportion of their electricity from renewable sources -- from 9.7 percent this year to 15.4 percent by 2016. Suppliers meet their obligations by presenting ROCs or by paying into a buyout fund.

Under the new rules, the government will issue two ROCs for every megawatt-hour of offshore wind power produced, doubling the original incentive. A further £405 million in the budget were earmarked for "the development of a world leading low-carbon energy and green manufacturing sector in the U.K.," something that analysts expect will benefit mainly wind and tidal power and should kick-start the 8,000 megawatts of various U.K. wind power projects that have secured approval but have not started construction. Without the increased incentives, the London Array would not have been economical, analysts said.

"The London Array is a flagship project in our drive to cut emissions by 80 percent by 2050 and meet future energy needs," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a statement. "The U.K. is a world leader in offshore wind farms, creating jobs and prosperity for the economy. That's why we have increased our support for this technology as we move toward a low carbon future."

Masdar's CEO Sultan Al Jaber also praised the government's involvement. "The London Array represents Masdar's strategic approach to renewable energy, whereby real partnerships are formed between government and the private sector," he said in a statement. "This project is a great achievement for the U.K. government, E.ON, DONG Energy and Masdar, which exemplifies our commitment to build cooperation to take renewable energy further down the path to widespread global adoption."

TreeHugger reports that Masdar has joined the London array project consortium - London Array, World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm, Gets Another Backer.

One of the largest wind farms in development, onshore or offshore, the 1 gigawatt London Array just got one step closer to reality. Abu Dhabi’s Masdar— of self-proclaimed zero carbon city and alternative energy investment fund fame—just announced that it has acquired a 20% stake in the project.

The on-again, off-again, offshore wind farm has had a rocky road in the past few years, but hopefully with the participation of Masdar the £1.5 billion ($2.55 billion) facility's future is more assured. More on Masdar’s involvement:

After Shell pulled out of the project without much notice or explanation, leaving the remaining developers E.ON and DONG Energy holding the bag, the future of the London Array was put it doubt. After regrouping, E.ON and DONG bought up the Shell stake. Masdar has gotten in through a joint venture with E.ON. As it stands now the London Array is now divided up with DONG Energy having a 50% stake in the project, E.ON 30%, and Masdar 20%.

The London Array remains on track to come online in 2012 or 2013. When completed its 271 turbines, located in the outer Thames Estuary, are expected to generate enough electricity for 750,000 UK homes.

TreeHugger reports that the huge London Array wind project is back on again, with buyers found for Shell's unwanted share.

A few months ago, when Shell pulled out of the London Array, leaving its partners E.ON and Dong Energy in the lurch, the future of Britain’s and the world’s largest offshore windfarm was up in the air. Now it seems that the Array’s future is a bit more certain.

German-based E.ON and Danish Dong Energy have agreed to buy Shell’s 33% stake in the 1 gigawatt project for an undisclosed sum, The Guardian reports. The two remaining backers will form a new 50-50 partnership to continue development of the wind farm located off the shore of Kent.

There is little word on exactly how this new arrangement will change the production schedule for the Array, other than Paul Golby, chief executive of E.ON UK saying that project should remain on track to complete the first phase of development by the end of 2012.

ALEX Salmond declared Scotland on the brink of a renewables revolution yesterday as he gave the go-ahead for the largest wind farm in Europe.
The First Minister told the World Renewable Energy Congress in Glasgow the green light had been given to a 152-turbine project in South Lanarkshire. The chairman of the congress then hailed Mr Salmond as the "saint of renewable energy".

Mr Salmond now expects Scotland to become the green-energy capital of Europe and a major exporter of renewable energy – a move that could bring billions of pounds into the economy.

With plans lodged for hundreds more wind turbines, as well as Scotland's huge potential in wave, tidal, hydro and solar power, and biomass, he said approval for the Clyde wind farm "demonstrates that we are only at the start of the renewables revolution in Scotland". ...

Mr Salmond's announcement was met with a round of applause by delegates from more than 80 countries. It means more than 4.5 gigawatts of renewable energy has been approved in Scotland, putting it just 400MW away from meeting its targets of generating 31 per cent of its electricity demand from renewable sources by 2011.

Mr Salmond told the congress: "The initial target of 31 per cent will be exceeded long before 2011, and by 2011 we will be through that target by a very, very substantial margin." He was confident of meeting the target of producing 50 per cent of energy from renewables by 2020. He told The Scotsman: "I am even more confident about that than about the 2011 target. By 2020, we will be able to mobilise some of our gigantic stuff offshore."

He predicted that, in the future, it will be offshore energy, such as wind, wave and tidal power, that will hold the most potential for Scotland. By about 2050, he forecast that offshore renewables would be able to generate 60GW of power – ten times the amount consumed in Scotland each year.

This means Scotland has the potential to become a huge exporter of renewable energy. Mr Salmond wants to see a sub-sea "supergrid" connecting Scotland with the rest of Europe.