The growth of the offshore wind power industry continues with major expansion plans for sites around the UK announced recently. One of the large wind farms that is currently in construction off the Scottish coast is the Robin Rigg Offshore Wind Farm. Robin Rigg is being developed by E.ON UK and will have a capacity of up to 180MW of electricity generated by 60 3MW wind turbines.

Robin Rigg is sited 9km offshore and will enter service in 2009. The onshore connection facilities were started in 2007 and the construction of the 60 wind turbines has been continuing. E.ON estimates that the facility will produce approximately 550 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year and will be capable of powering approximately 150,000 homes. As a producer of electricity from renewable energy sources, the wind farm will avoid around 230,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

A rough estimate of the cost of the project has been put at €500 million.

Other offshore wind farms that are currently in development around the UK include the 1000MW London Array Project, the 300MW Humber Gateway Offshore Wind Farm and the 504MW Greater Gabbard Wind Project.