UK Throws In The Towel On Wind Farm Which Was To Be The Largest Offshore Wind Project Ever Built

Regular readers are very familiar with this story. I post updates periodically. But I did not think it would come to this. I never thought the math worked, but ignorance knows no bounds. A major utility will scrap plans for an off-shore wind farm off the west coast of England.

When I first read the story, I thought they were talking about the London Array but it turns out that it was another array, the Atlantic Array. So, I guess the London Array continues.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

A major European utility said Tuesday it would scrap a wind farm that was due to become the largest offshore wind project ever built, a sign of the struggles of the industry to attract investment needed to overcome huge costs and technical challenges.

The Atlantic Array, in the Bristol Channel off the west coast of England, could have generated up to 1,200 megawatts of electricity, almost twice as much as the largest farm already operating in U.K. waters. But RWE said on Tuesday that continuing with the project faced problems that were "prohibitive in current market conditions."

The U.K. has pioneered offshore wind power, maximizing its island status with more turbines than any other country, but risky technology and the huge cash outlay needed for the next phase of development has some investors balking.

Financial investors are essential to offshore wind's future: The U.K. is planning to increase offshore-wind energy production from 3.65 gigawatts now—enough to power 2.5 million homes—to 39 GW in a construction phase stretching out to 2030. But the financial outlay is massive: $60 billion is needed to achieve 16 GW, or less than half the final total, according to Industry body Renewable U.K.