The Largest Wind Farm in the World Opens Today.

The Thanet wind farm in the English Channel off Foreness Point will be officially opened later today, making it the larget offshore wind farm in the world.

The 100 turbines, each measuring more than 350ft / 115m and spread over an area of 35 sq km , and will increase the amount of energy generated from offshore wind in the UK by a third to,  1,314MW, compared to 1,100MW in the whole of the rest of the world.
With the added capacity of Thanet, the amount of electricity generated by wind in the UK is almost 5,000MW or 5GW, enough to power 3 million homes. The Thanet development is projected to generate enough electricity to power 240,000 homes. It cost £780million to develop and 2 years to complete

 Thanet wind farm, built by Swedish energy giant Vattenfall, increases the number of large scale turbines off the coast of Britain to 436. There are already 2,640 on land. There are also over 900 currently beign constructed, both off and on-shore
and a further 2,300 with planning consent.

Green Apprenticeships

Further confirming Fife's Energy Park as a leader in wind energy technology, a plan to initiate 150 apprenticeships in green energy at a cost of £62,000 a year has been announced today.
Carbon Free Developments, in association with Adam Smith College, will fund six places annually. The scheme will be operated in association with a new nine-turbine farm, on a former open-cast coal mine site at Earlseat. If approved, the wind farm is expected to have an installed capacity of 20.7MW, which could power up to 11,000 homes.
The apprenticeships will be open to school leavers and those who are unemployed or need to retrain.
This year Scottish Enterprise earmarked Fife's Energy Park as one of 11 hubs to benefit from investment in offshore wind turbine manufacturing.

Fife set to become leader in wind energy

Fife is set to become a centre of offshore wind enrgy production.
Roy Evans, from The Crown Estate, which has responsibilty for energy prjects in UK waters, outlined the planned development of offshore wind farms that will make the UK the biggest offshore wind market in the world.Three major wind farm sites are going to be to be located less than 60 nautical miles from Fife Energy Park, which is based on the former Kvaerner oil fabrication yard at Methil.
These developments are expected to give a boost to the local economy with local firms becoming world leaders in specializations such as sub-sea cabling.
Source
http://www.fifedirect.org.uk/minisites/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.display&siteID=592084A3-FA5F-AC19-025B3EB2AF7B08B1&pageid=5922CA75-A154-28FD-A897BD58F1E019A1
http://www.fife.gov.uk/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.display&objectid=1A782403-FB5C-CE1B-C1FCF2BA03908B51