UK: Air Service for London Array Offshore Wind Farm

The velocity of the project implementation and a pretty tight schedule have prompted one of the major contractors of the London Array wind farm project to hire an air service provider for its workers, Yourcountry reports.

“Everybody involved in the London Array project is working to very tight deadlines to bring phase 1 of this exciting project online and deliver renewable energy for 470,000 households, which is two-thirds of all the homes in Kent and Medway. The air service will make it possible to move essential staff quickly and efficiently between the construction site and our offices in Denmark,” Project Manager Offshore Wind at Siemens, Chris Randle confirmed.

The charter flights will be operated by JoinJet, a subsidiary of British Airways covering a route from Manston Airport to Billund in Denmark. In this way, by boarding a 32 seater Dornier 328 senior engineers will be able to arrive to their destination in 90 minutes, thus enabling them to save time and be at home much quicker.

„We are delighted to play our part in supporting the growth of the renewable sector in Kent and in particular the delivery of the London Array wind farm. As with the investment in the new radar, which will help the airport’s air traffic controllers deal with the radar ‘clutter’ caused by the rotating wind turbines, and provide a safe and efficient service, it shows how aviation and wind farms can co-exist for the benefit of the area,” Charles Buchanan, Chief Executive of Manston Airport, pointed out.

London Array represents the world’s largest consented offshore wind farm of 1,000MW. It is forecasted that the London Array will provide electricity to 750,000 homes, which is about a quarter of Greater London. Moreover, being a source of renewable energy the project is also said to reduce harmful CO2 emissions by 1.4 million tonnes on annual basis. The construction will be carried out in two stages.

Construction on the new onshore substation at Cleve Hill started in July 2009, whereas offshore construction kicked off in March 2011, when the first of 177 foundations for the project have been installed.

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Offshore WIND staff, April 02, 2012; Image: londonarray