A £1.5bn wind farm off the coast of East Anglia has hit full throttle, just eighteen months after construction began.

The 353MW Galloper offshore wind farm achieved full generation on schedule and within budget on Thursday, when the last of the 56 turbines was switched on.

Foundation installation was completed two months ahead of schedule in March 2017 and the first power was generated before the end of last year.

Galloper project director Toby Edmonds said: 'Getting all the turbines switched on means we've done it and in record time. We can now celebrate the project moving into the operation phase. Galloper will run for over 20 years, ensuring clean renewable energy helping to power a decarbonised UK economy and delivering enough energy for around 380,000 homes annually.'

The project employed 700 people during construction and will require a team of 70 people to operate it from its home port of Harwich.

Mr Edmonds said that over its lifetime, more than half of the project's investment would be in UK companies.

Clark MacFarlane, UK managing director of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy said: 'The commissioning of the Galloper project is a momentous moment – although Galloper was one of the last projects of its round, it is at the beginning of a new era for offshore wind power in the UK. This year sees not only full generation from Galloper, but also a halving of costs for offshore wind. The close working relationship Siemens Gamesa has built up with innogy over a number of projects has made the former possible and contributed considerably to the latter.'

A planning application is currently being progressed for the operations and maintenance building and infrastructure. Once planning permission is granted, construction of the base and supporting infrastructure is expected to take around 12 months.