Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Hidden Article

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Blowing Up The Thames

Windy Miller | 19.12.2006 02:53 | Ecology | Technology | London | World

Finally a giant leap for renewables in the UK.

A licence to build the world's largest offshore windfarm in the Thames estuary was granted by the Government yesterday. The London Array windfarm, 12 miles off Kent and Essex, should eventually consist of 341 turbines, occupying an area of 90 square miles between Margate and Clacton.

London Array, a consortium of Shell WindEnergy, E.On UK Renewables and Core, is behind the £1.5 billion, 1,000 megawatt project. The consortium claims that the windfarm will produce an amount of energy that, if generated by conventional means, would result in 1.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year. It could also make up to 10 per cent of the Government's 2010 renewables target.

A second windfarm, off the coast of Kent, was also given the go-ahead. The Thanet windfarm will be seven miles from North Foreland on the Kent coast and will contain 100 turbines, occupying 13.5 square miles. The £500 million project being developed by Warwick Energy is expected to be completed by 2008. It will supply electricity to about 240,000 homes.

The windfarms combined will be enough to power a third of London's three million households, or the combined households of Kent and Sussex.

Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, said: "It is a significant step forward in providing a greener and clean source of power.

"Britain is second only to Denmark in the offshore wind sector and projects such as the London Array, which will be the biggest in the world when completed, and Thanet underline the real progress that is being made."

Godfrey Boyle, the director of the Open University energy and environment research unit, said: "This should just be the beginning. Offshore wind could be providing nearly a quarter of Britain's electricity in 20 years, given a bit more encouragement from government."

The consortium behind the London Array wind farm has altered plans for the 341-turbine scheme to limit harm to red-throated divers, a bird rarely seen in British waters.

Surveying of the outer Thames Estuary, off north-east Kent, between 2002 and 2005, found a 7,000-strong wintering colony of the birds which until then were thought to number fewer than 5,000 in Britain. As a result, the developers reduced the number of first-phase turbines from 258 to 175.

Mark Avery, the conservation director at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "The co-operation of the developers has been exceptional and we are confident that the birds will not be affected by this first stage of the development.

"If monitoring shows that they are, then the developers have accepted that their plans for additional turbines will have to be dropped."

The RSPB has welcomed the project and contrasted the London Array development with plans for a 181-turbine wind farm on the Hebridean Isle of Lewis. That proposal, on land protected by EU law, is likely to affect a range of breeding and migrating birds including golden eagles, dunlin, corncrake, and red-throated diver.

The wind farm would be built on peat, a soil that stores huge amounts of carbon, and would require the excavation of five quarries and substantial infrastructure including almost 90 miles of roads, underground and overground cabling and nearly 140 pylons.

Anne McCall, the head of planning and development at RSPB Scotland, said: "The approach of the London Array developers mirrors the constructive stance of many in the renewables industry. They have worked with us to resolve an environmental concern, which became apparent as a result of their own survey work.

"On Lewis, the developers knew from day one that the site was protected by law, that their proposal would harm large areas of peatland and threaten a range of breeding and migrating birds."

The lesson here is to avoid designated sites from the outset. That would save years of wrangling and enable renewable energy schemes to get off the ground far more quickly."

A date for the construction of the London Array windfarm is unlikely to be set until the conclusion of a planning inquiry on the project's proposed electricity substation. The substation, which would channel the power generated offshore to the national grid, is planned for Cleve Hill, Graveney, in Kent. Swale borough council refused planning permission. The outcome of the inquiry will be announced next year.

Windy Miller

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech