Dong Energy has announced plans to construct what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm when construction is completed.
Dong Energy's Walney Extension offshore wind farm will be located in the Irish Sea, 19km off the west coast of Britain. Dong expects the wind farm to be fully operational in 2018, according to an announcement made on Wednesday.
The Walney Extension will have two different turbines: 40 8-MW turbines from MHI Vestas Offshore Wind and 47 7-MW Siemens turbines.
“Walney Extension will supply green electricity to over 460,000 British households, and I am very pleased that we can now start the construction of what will become the world's largest offshore wind farm when it is completed,” Samuel Leupold, the executive vice president of Dong Energy, said.
Britain still lags behind Denmark when it comes to wind energy. With wind energy accounting for only 9.3 percent of Britain’s electricity supplies in 2014, according to RenewableUK. In comparison, a record 39 percent of all electricity used in Denmark last year was produced by wind power, according to 2014 figures from Energinet.dk.
Danish Oil & Natural Gas (Dong) was established in 1972 to manage gas and oil resources in the Danish North Sea. In 2006 it merged with several electricity producers and distributors to become Dong Energy, Denmark's largest energy company.
Although the Danish government controversially sold a 18 percent stake in the company to US investment firm Goldman Sachs, the Danish state is still the primary stakeholder.
Dong has yet to release an estimated cost of the planned Walney Extension.
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