The world’s largest offshore wind farm is now fully online. Located in the UK off the Cumbrian coast, the Walney wind farm has a 367 megawatt capacity and can power up to 320,000 households a year.

The project was the first of its kind in the UK to receive institutional investment before it was built. It was completed in record-breaking time; the second phase of the 102 turbine-project was installed in just over five months.

Britain currently has more than 1.5 gigawatts of installed offshore wind power, and plans to increase capacity to 18 gigawatts by 2020. The government is aiming to lower the cost of offshore wind, and Dong Energy, the developer of the Walney wind project, has helped reduce costs by making large-scale installation more efficient.

The Walney project won’t be the largest in the world for long — two other UK wind farms under construction are even bigger. The new London Array is nearly twice as big at 630 megawatts, and may later be expanded to become the world’s first 1 gigawatt wind farm.

Main photo credit: Dong Energy