Celtic Array Rhiannon wind
farm off Anglesey scrapped
The massive wind farm planned for the Irish Sea has been scrapped.
The Rhiannon wind farm, 12 miles (19km) north east of
Anglesey, would have covered an area the size of the island.
Celtic Array, a partnership of Centrica and Danish firm Dong
Energy, said the Irish Sea was "economically unviable" with current
technology due to "challenging ground conditions".
Up to 440 turbines would have produced enough power to meet the
needs of around 1.7m homes.
"We're disappointed not to be progressing with our work
to develop wind farms in the Irish Sea Zone," said a spokesperson for the
project.
"However our assessments have shown that ground
conditions are such that it's not viable for us to proceed with the technology
that's available at this stage."
Jobs hope
First announced in 2010, the project had been submitted to
the UK government in 2012, followed by a series of public meetings in north
Wales and on the Isle of Man.
Anglesey council leader Ieuan Williams said the announcement
was "hugely disappointing".
"We'd hoped that the Rhiannon Wind Farm operational
base could have been located in the port of Holyhead, given its potential for
assembly, operations and maintenance of offshore wind farms," he said.
"This could have brought jobs and economic benefits to
the island."
Nick Medic, spokesman on offshore developments for the
industry body RenewableUK, said while the announcement was disappointing, the
reasons behind it were "understandable".
Earlier in July, National Grid confirmed that
the timetable had slipped for its plans to connect the Rhiannon wind farm to
the electricity network with a 1km overhead line near Rhosgoch on the island.
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