One of the largest wind power plants to open off Kent coast (300 MW)

Energy secretary Chris Huhne will unveil the 100 wind turbines, which sit 12 km off Foreness Point near Ramsgate, on Thursday alongside Øystein Løseth, president of Vattenfall, the Swedish power company behind the development.

It will be a landmark moment for the renewable energy industry, and two weeks ago the latest statistics from the National Grid revealed around 10 per cent of electricity was generated by UK wind farms.

The Thanet Offshore Wind Farm, made up of 100 Vestas V90 wind turbines reaching 115 metres at their highest point, will have a total capacity of 300 megawatts, generating enough electricity to supply heat and light to more than 200,000 homes.

A Vattenfall spokesman said: "This is a significant investment in renewable wind energy." Vattenfall began work on the £800 million development in 2008 and the last wind turbine was installed in June this year.

David Hodkinson, director and head of development at the company, said "The experience gained on Thanet is contributing to our drive to make our future offshore wind power projects safer and more cost effective to install and operate, both of which are needed to establish the sector as a major source of low carbon electricity and jobs."

The wind farm, located in water depths of 20-25m and covering an area of 35 sq km, will boost UK offshore wind capacity by more than 30 per cent.

Its upcoming unveiling follows the announcement by Renewable UK, the professional body for wind energy, that the production of electricity from wind had reached a historical record at the beginning of the month. Data from the National Grid showed around 10 per cent of electricity delivered to consumers was generated by the farms.

Maria McCaffery, chief executive of Renewable UK, said: "We are expecting to see the contribution of electricity from wind gradually increase over the next decade to around 30 per cent.

"These figures underpin the strong contention that renewable energy – and wind energy in particular – is no longer alternative. It is on the scale and growing rapidly."

She continued: "If we added together all the wind energy projects in planning to the projects already existing and about to come on stream, we would be three-quarters of the way to reaching our 2020 targets.

"If we count in the potential of offshore wind, the plan of turning the UK into a net energy exporter does not seem unlikely." Mr Huhne and other dignitaries will sail from the Port of Ramsgate to the wind farm for the unveiling.

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