The Government of Abu Dhabi has stepped in to help to fund the world’s biggest offshore wind farm in the Thames Estuary after the withdrawal of Royal Dutch Shell from the project.

Masdar, a $15bn (£9bn) clean-energy investment fund controlled by the Gulf state, said yesterday that it would buy a 20% stake in the London Array project from E.ON, the German energy giant.

The scheme to build up to 271 wind turbines 12 miles off the Kent and Essex coasts is expected to cost £3bn. Once complete, it will generate up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity – enough to power 750,000 homes.

Financial Times, The Times, Daily Telegraph, The Independent