The company claims this is enough energy to power up to 170,000 homes.
In a statement, Dr Tony Cocker, chief executive officer of E.ON UK, said: ‘This isn’t just an important announcement for E.ON, but is also a significant announcement for the UK.
‘Increasing the proportion of electricity we generate from low-carbon, renewable sources is a vital part of meeting the energy challenges we all face.’
Humber Gateway will be located 8km off the East Yorkshire coast, just north of the mouth of the river Humber. Further works at the site will begin in March with construction of the onshore substation, with a view to completing the project in Spring 2015.
The project aims to create up to 1,000 jobs during construction and a further 30 roles to operate and maintain the wind farm when it is operational.
E.ON’s announcement forms part of a €2bn (£1.7bn) investment programme in offshore wind, encompassing Humber Gateway (219MW) off the coast of the UK, Amrumbank (288MW) off the coast of Germany and Kårehamn (48MW) off the coast of Sweden.
Amrumbank will be E.ON’s first commercial offshore wind farm in Germany and will use Siemens 3.6MW turbines. Humber Gateway and Kårehamn will use Vestas V112 3.0MW turbines.
These offshore projects are part of a €7bn investment programme over the next five years, in which E.ON will be creating industrial-scale wind, solar and biomass power plants.
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