European loan for Thames Estuary wind farm 'a green gift' for Londoners - Ludford

5.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 11th Jun 2010

The European Investment Bank yesterday announced that it is awarding a Thames Estuary wind farm project a £250 million loan. At a capacity of 1,000 MW, the offshore wind farm called the London Array is tipped to become the largest such project in the world.

London Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford said:

"This European funding is an excellent 'green gift' for Londoners. The windfarm will make the most of our infamous British weather to provide climate-friendly clean energy for the capital."

"We need more renewable energy projects such as this one, and the gradual decommissioning of old dirty coal power stations. Not only does wind power provide a carbon-free energy supply, it also carries no risk of deep water oil spills!"

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The first phase of the project is scheduled to be up and running by the 2012 Olympics.

This follows a £1 billion loan from the European bank to the Crossrail project in September of last year.