More wind power from Wales

RWE npower has announced the beginning of construction on its second major wind farm off the Welsh coastline.

The company has signed what it describes as a major contract with Siemens Power Generation to supply and install turbines for the 90MW Rhyl Flats offshore wind farm scheme due to be fully operational by mid 2009.

Once operational, Rhyl Flats, along with its neighbour North Hoyle, will produce electricity every year to meet the needs of over 100,000 homes and will prevent the release of around 410,000 tonnes of CO₂ into the atmosphere every year.

Malcolm Wicks MP, Minister for Energy at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, said: ‘Offshore wind farms can make a real contribution to the UK’s renewable electricity targets and we want to see more of them. We backed Rhyl Flats with a £10m capital grant and we set out measures in the recent Energy White Paper that will provide even more support to developers through the Renewables Obligation.'

Offshore foundation construction work at the Rhyl Flats site begins later this month, based out of the Port of Mostyn in Flintshire. Works installing the twenty-five 3.6-megawatt wind turbines will be begin in 2008.

Over 150 jobs are expected to be created during the construction phase between 2007 and 2009, with around a further 12 jobs being created to operate and maintain the wind farm once it is up and running.