by business editor Trevor Sturgess

The wind is set fair for more job creation in Kent with the decision to extend two offshore energy projects.

Swedish firm Vattenfall is in talks with The Crown Estate to extend Kentish Flats and Thanet offshore wind farms.

The energy business is already investing more than £1bn in UK wind farm projects that support hundreds of jobs.

Kentish Flats is a 90MW wind farm off Whitstable and has been generating power since 2005. Along the coast, Vattenfall will complete construction of Thanet Offshore Wind Farm, which at 300MW, will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world - at least until the planned London Array project gets under way.

Ole Bigum Nielsen, head of Offshore Projects at Vattenfall Wind Power in the UK said: "Vattenfall is pleased to have reached this important stage in the negotiations to extend Kentish Flats and Thanet offshore wind farms.

"The two existing projects that we own off the Kent coast are making a substantial contribution to the Kent economy and are going some way to helping deliver British climate change targets." Vattenfall's vision was to make electricity clean by 2050," he added.

Earlier this year, Vattenfall was awarded rights to develop, in partnership with ScottishPower Renewables, a major wind farm off East Anglia as part of a leasing round by The Crown Estate.