Britain on May 12 launched an ambitious and controversial offshore wind farm project hailed as a strategic milestone towards the production of renewable energy at industrial level. The London Array project, which envisages the construction of up to 341 giant turbines in the Thames Estuary off the coast of southeast Britain, is set to become the world’s largest offshore wind farm and the first with a capacity of more than 1 gigawatt, operators said, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

German energy giant E.ON, one of the project’s main backers, said construction of the first phase, involving 175 turbines, would start later this year and could be generating power in time for the 2012 London Olympic Games.E.ON and its partners DONG Energy of Denmark and Masdar of Abu Dhabi will invest 2.2 billion Euro into building the first 630- megawatt phase of the wind farm near the coastal city of Southend.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the “flagship project” would play a key role in Britain’s drive to cut CO2 emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Britain would become a world leader in offshore wind farms, creating jobs and prosperity for the economy as it moved into a low carbon future, Brown said.

The project will be sited over an area of 230 square kilometres, some 20 kilometres off the coast of Kent and Essex. It is estimated to displace the emission of 1.9 million tonnes of CO2 every year. It is scheduled to supply enough power for around 750,000 households, which would fulfil 25 percent of the requirements of all homes in the Greater London area. “The partners are satisfied that the project is now financially viable and are now keen to push ahead with construction and to produce the first renewable power in 2012,” the firms said in a statement.

E.ON Chief Executive Wulf Bernotat described the London Array project as a “key milestone” in the ambitious strategy to take the production of renewable energy to an industrial level. “With this pioneering scheme, we see a significant increase in scale for offshore wind and also for E.ON as we aim to become the world’s largest offshore wind farm developer,” he said. Sultan al-Jaber, the chief executive of Masdar, said the leadership of Abu Dhabi recognised the importance of global collaboration in the development of renewable energy on a large scale.

“The London Array represents Masdar’s strategic approach to renewable energy, whereby real partnerships are formed between government and the private sector,” he said. The project would take renewable energy further down the path to widespread global adoption, added al-Jaber. The project had been on a knife edge since Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell withdrew from it in 2008, but received fresh impetus from considerable British government budget commitments to the promotion of green energy. E.ON holds a share of 30 percent in the project, with DONG Energy holding 50 percent and Masdar 20 percent.

“This is another green light for green energy. It’s a vote of confidence in the support the government has put into backing renewable energy,” Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said. Energy production from giant wind farms has been controversial in Britain, especially in Scotland, where dozens of projects have become subject to planning inquiries and legal disputes. However, environmental group Greenpeace on May 12 praised the “cutting-edge” project and urged the government to promote an even faster development of the wind industry. “The UK has the best renewable energy resources in Europe, and the know-how to harvest it. The London Array should be the start of a major expansion of offshore wind to help power Britain,” said Greenpeace Executive Director John Sauven.