ABU DHABI, Jan 19, 2009 -- Reuters


Abu Dhabi's green energy firm Masdar said on Monday it was reviewing the economic viability of its London Array offshore wind farm project.

Masdar said in October it would take a 20 percent stake in the project, with German firm E.ON retaining a 30 percent share, in the first part of a wider renewable energy partnership between Masdar and EON.

"The economics of this project should be revisited," said Ziad Tassabehji, director of innovation and investments at Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar).

"We are working with our partners to study the feasibility of the project," he told reporters at a future energy summit in Abu Dhabi, declining to elaborate.

Denmark's DONG owns the other half of the project to build a 1,000 megawatt wind farm in the Thames Estuary near London.

The future of the London Array plan to supply some 750,000 homes with electricity from 341 turbines in the outer Thames Estuary has been in doubt since Royal Dutch Shell pulled out, with DONG saying at the time it had still made no final investment decision on building it.

The British government needs wind power to grow rapidly over the next decade to reach tough European Union renewable energy targets for 2020.

(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; editing by Sue Thomas) Keywords: EMIRATES MASDAR/UK

(john.irish@thomsonreuters.com; +971 4 391 8301; Reuters Messaging: john.irish.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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