Wind farm signs deal for grid connection

A wind farm project, expected to have the environmental impact of removing 350,000 cars from the road, has signed a deal with an engineering firm to connect its renewable energy to the grid.

The Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm, which will generate 500MW of electricity, will be connected to a grid point in Sizewell Village by Siemens power transmission equipment.

Siemens signed the £66 million deal with Fluor, which is working on developing the project with owner Airtricity – Scottish and Southern Energy's wind power development subsidiary.

The 140 3.6MW wind turbines for the wind farm, which will be built in two phases, are also being provided by Siemens.

Udo Niehage, chief executive officer of the Power Transmission Division of the Siemens Energy Sector, said: "Siemens Energy has a unique wind power portfolio. Not only do we manufacture and supply high-tech wind turbines, we also efficiently connect wind farms to the grid. This includes carrying out the necessary preliminary network studies."

Although the Greater Gabbard wind farm will be the biggest in the world upon completion in 2011, the London Array's 1GW will dwarf its power output.