(Bloomberg) -- The UK’s electricity system operator has designed a plan to connect three proposed floating offshore wind farms with the grid, as the country’s decarbonization drive picks up speed.
National Grid ESO has planned the links for 4.5 gigawatts of floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea, an area of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Wales and southwest England. The connections have been designed before seabed leasing takes place for the wind farms, which will generate enough power to supply 4 million homes.
The UK is counting on wind energy to meet a large part of its renewable power goals, including a net-zero grid by 2030. While floating offshore wind is a relatively new technology, the government is targeting 12 gigawatts of capacity in the Celtic Sea by 2050.
National Grid ESO’s network design will eventually connect 3 gigawatts of floating wind capacity to the grid in South Wales and 1.5 gigawatts to southwest England. Those connections will be ready by 2035 at the latest, it said.
The announcement comes the same day that regulator Ofgem approved a major cable to bring power from Scottish wind farms to England.
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