South coast's new offshore wind farm location unveiled

An image of how the offshore windfarm will look off the south coast

A firm has revealed the location of a 76 sq-mile wind farm comprising of up to 240 wind turbines off the Dorset, Hampshire and Isle of Wight coasts.

The farm will be 8.2 miles (13.2km) away from Peveril Point in Swanage and 8.4 miles (13.5km) south west of The Needles and the Isle of Wight.

Eneco Wind UK said it had a potential yield of between 900MW and 1200MW, to power up to 820,000 homes.

The farm will be built between 2016 and 2019, subject to planning permission.

The Netherlands company won the Isle of Wight licence, which is one of nine sites around the UK earmarked for large offshore wind farm projects.

All the winners have signed exclusive agreements with the Crown Estate, which owns the UK seabed.

Chris Sherrington, the project's director, said: "This is an important milestone in the lifetime of the development of this project and enables us to look to the future and consider wider impacts such as the positive economic benefits our project could bring to the area."

Residents will be able to see the final design and layout of the windfarm at events in Weymouth, Poole, Newport on the Isle of Wight, Lymington, Christchurch, Bournemouth and Swanage, between 16 and 31 March.

A Eneco spokesman said the public was being invited to suggest a name for the new structure.