World's biggest offshore windfarm opens in Britain

LONDON, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- The world's largest offshore windfarm opened off the coast of Cumbria, Britain on Thursday, according to British authorities.

Britain's Department of Energy and Climate Change said in a statement that Edward Davey, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, opened the offshore windfarm near Walney in Cumbria.

With 102 turbines and a total capacity of 367.2 MW, the windfarm could provide enough power for 320,000 households.

"Britain has a lot to be proud of in our growing offshore wind sector. Our island's tremendous natural resource, our research base and a proud history of engineering make this the number one destination for investment in offshore wind," said Davey.

"And Walney is the newest, biggest and fastest-built jewel in that crown, providing clean power for hundreds of thousands of households," he said.

Statistics show that Britain has more than 1.5 gigawatts(GW) of installed offshore wind power, and is planning to raise its capacity to 18 GW by 2020.

As many as 70,000 people could be employed in the British offshore wind industry by the start of the next decade.