Cash boost for Thanet businnesses as work begins on Array wind farm
THANET businesses are to get a welcome boost worth thousands of pounds as work begins on a new project to build the world's biggest wind farm.
Thanet is home to the current holder of that title, the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm operated by Vattenfall. But London Array plans to outdo them by building a wind farm capable of generating more than twice as much electricity – enough to power almost 480,000 homes.
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London Array operations boss Matt Britton met with the public and businesses this week ahead of the first phase of construction, which starts in March.
He said: "There will be a huge number of people coming to the area staying in hotels, eating in restaurants and renting accommodation. People will be coming because of the construction and there will be even more visitors linked to the three companies involved in the project."
The company uses business directory www. kentwindenergy.co.uk set up by Kent County Council, which introduces local businesses and their services to renewable energy companies.
Mr Britton added: "We want to use as many local businesses as possible, whether it is local taxi firms, hotels or electricians."
Vattenfall's offshore wind farm, with 100 wind turbines completed last year, can generate enough power for 200,000 homes. When phase one is completed of London Array it will generate enough electricity for almost 480,000 homes.
London Array is racing to complete construction of its operations and maintenance building, which will house up to 90 staff.
Last year London Array linked with JobCentre Plus at Thanet College, where it found 22 suitable candidates to be interviewed as technicians.
Mr Britton added: "We expect to start our recruitment in the next few weeks and plan to hire 35 technicians over the next couple of years. The wind turbine supplier Siemens will hire another 35 technicians. We also plan to hire 20 managerial and administrative staff."
Plans to increase output from 630 megawatts to 1,000 megawatts (phase two) have been approved, providing the company can prove construction will not threaten the hunting habitat of the bird the red-throated diver.
Mr Britton added: "On a very clear day people in Margate may be able to see our wind farm."
For more on Kickstart Thanet campaign see pages 10&11
4 Comments
by Jack, Tunbridge Wells
Wednesday, February 09 2011, 2:47PM
“Better windmills than sulfur dioxide spewing coal power stations or nuclear plants producing permanently radioactive waste which no country has a credible plan to safely deal with.
What's wrong with how wind farms look? Offshore ones are barely visible from land anyway and don't spoil anything. They provide free, self-sufficient and sustainable energy, surely just the sort of electric generation we should be aiming to harness.”
by G, Sussex
Saturday, January 29 2011, 10:22AM
“Its all based on lies and wonky statistics."Enough energy to power 480 thousand homes" is just misinformation.
That may be the theoretical amount but in practice wind turbines only produce 30% of their theoretical maximum load each year.Nuclear and Coal generation
produce over 50% of their theoretical capacity a year.When you take into account also that electricity generated
from turbines costs the same as coal fired generation and only slightly less than nuclear you realise that all this cheap green energy is not cheap ,green and perhaps more important not reliable.
Unless we get our act together in this country and ignore all the eco fascists wonky theories we are all heading back to the stone age.Perfectly good coal power stations are being scrapped and
the majority of our nuclear generating capacity is going the same way.Unless we undertake an emergency power station building programme we will be in the deep smelly stuff in as little as 5 years.Hey but dont worry because we will have a load of windmills to satisfy our growing need for power .”
by michael, margate
Saturday, January 29 2011, 7:46AM
“Oh come off it Mr Britton do you really expect the people of Thanet to fall for that 'old chestnut', loads of money coming to the area, loads of jobs. Thirty-five wind farm technicians over two years another 35 then 20 managerial and administrative staff. Thanet's full of out of work wind farm technicians isn't it. NOT! What we will see is a foreign company making money out of the project using their own foreign labour.”
by G, Sussex
Friday, January 28 2011, 9:20AM
“Oh good more windmills to ruin the environment.If all these wind farms are so successful at producing lots of lovely free green energy why are our bills going up rather than down.
The simple answer is that wind power is not a cost effect nor reliable method of electricity generation.The companies that run these turbines rely on the taxpayer to subsidise them in order to make them worthwhile.Take into account that for every turbine there must be backup generation capacity to cover the majority of the time when these things are not generating and you realise that they are just a huge green PR scam.Anyone supporting these projects should be forced to have their electricity supply connected to their own turbine whilst the rest of us remain
connected to the National Grid.Perhaps then the eco fascists will realise we need reliable power generation in the form of nuclear and coal power stations rather than windmills.”