First wind power produced by E.ON’s Robin Rigg offshore wind farm

Energy company E.ON has today announced that the first power had been produced by its Robin Rigg offshore wind farm in the Solway Firth.

The company has switched on the first turbine at the wind farm and it has been successfully generating power since yesterday.

Ian Johnson, Robin Rigg Project Manager, said: "This is fantastic news.

"There’s still a long, long way to go but, with the weather looking good for the next few days, we’ll be looking to start the commissioning process very soon and to get a lot more turbines turning.

"It should be quite a sight with all the boats out there and more and more turbines starting to turn."

The wind farm consists of 60 turbines and will eventually produce enough power for almost 120,000 homes and displace the emission of 235,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

London Array

Location Kent and Essex coast in the outer Thames Estuary

Project scope Up to 271 turbines

Turbine height above mean sea level – up to 100m to hub, up to 175m to blade tip

Total wind power Up to 1000 MW

We are a partner in the London Array Offshore Wind Farm project with Dong Energy and Masdar.

Why London Array?

Some of the reasons the site is regarded as very suitable for a large-scale offshore wind farm include:

* High wind speeds
* Low water depth
* Proximity of nearby ports for construction, operation and maintenance
* Minimum interference with established shipping channels
* Suitable ground conditions
* Suitable grid connection
* Proximity of power demand – South East England has the highest demand for electricity in the UK

The London Array Wind Farm would:

* Provide around 750,000 homes’ annual electricity needs – that’s around a quarter of Greater London or of the homes in Kent and East Sussex
* Displace the emission of 1.9million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year – enough to fill Wembley Stadium 250 times over
* Represent nearly 10% of the Government’s renewable target for 2010 (10% of the 10%)

We aim to become a world leader in the development and construction of offshore wind farms and are currently developing a portfolio of projects in UK, Scandinavian and German waters.

In the UK we are developing, in partnershipwith Dong Energy and Masdar,one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, London Array, located in the Thames Estuary. If commissioned the wind farm could supply up to a quarter of London’s power and offset the emission of 1.9 million tonnes of harmful greenhouse gases each year.

We have also begun construction on Robin Rigg, our third offshore wind farm.Once operational the 180MW site will be one of the largest wind farms in UK waters.

We are fully committed to developing further offshore schemes – we currently have two other offshore schemes in various stages of development – Scarweather Sands and Humber Gateway.

Although increased wind speeds are available offshore construction of wind farms offshore is more complicated than on land due to the variable nature of the seabed and the range of different sea conditions. We have establised a dedicated European offshore construction team, drawing on our skills and experience within the E.ON Group.

www.eon-uk.com/