Red Throated Divers halt wind farm

The consortium behind the London Array offshore wind farm has announced that it will not proceed with the second phase of the project.

The decision is linked to environmental issues which involve a wait of at least three years so that the potential impact of Phase 2 on the Red Throated Divers that overwinter in the Thames Estuary could be completely assessed.

London Array general manager, Mike O’Hare, comments: “We believe it will take until at least January 2017 for that data to be collected and although initial findings from the existing Phase 1 site look positive, there is no guarantee at the end of three years that we will be able to satisfy the authorities that any impact on the birds would be acceptable.”

The original consent for London Array was for a wind farm of up to 1000MW, with 630MW in Phase 1 – which is complete, fully operational and the world’s largest offshore wind farm. The final capacity of Phase 2 was expected to be around 200MW.