ScottishPower Renewables is planning to invest about £2.5bn to develop and build East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm in the southern North Sea, around 26m off the coast.
The new facility is the first of four wind farms that the company is expecting to build off the East coast.
Scheduled to be fully operational by 2020, the wind farm will be equipped with 102 wind turbines, with capacity to generate 714MW of power.
The generated energy will be enough to power the equal of 500,000 homes or most of the households in the UK’s Suffolk and Norfolk area.
During the construction phase, the project will create nearly 3,000 jobs and will use around 50% of the total £2.5bn investment in the UK alone.
The entire East Anglia region is expected to be benefitted from the project since it will provide investment opportunities to the local economy.
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By GlobalDataA £25m deal with the Port of Lowestoft, which will be the home of the wind farm for over 30 years, has already been finalised.
With the project, the company also seeks to help the government’s cost reduction efforts.
ScottishPower Renewables East Anglia ONE project director Charlie Jordan said: "East Anglia ONE will deliver substantial environmental benefits for the UK, it will stimulate considerable UK investment, and it will support thousands of jobs.
"Offshore wind has proven itself as a technology that works, and the more offshore wind capacity we have in the UK, the more secure our energy supplies will be.
"East Anglia has some of the best conditions anywhere in the world for the development of offshore wind, and we are fully committed to the region, with future developments already in the pipeline."
Last November, the company had submitted its plan for a new 1,200MW wind farm, East Anglia THREE, which will be located off the coast of Suffolk.
Once completed, the farm with 172 turbines will be able to provide power to over 850,000 homes per year.
Image: Port of Lowestoft will be the home of the East Anglia ONE wind farm for over 30 years. Photo: courtesy of Blue Square Thing
