Hundreds of proposed jobs in Kent could be at risk amid fears the financial crisis will hit Britain’s biggest wind farm project.

It has been reported today that the £1.5bn London Array project, which would plant 270 turbines in the Thames Estuary off Thanet, may be jeopardised by funding doubts.

Energy giant E.ON, which owns a 30 per cent stake, is a major partner in a consortium working on the project which promises to give a huge economic boost to East Kent.

Ramsgate was set to become the "Aberdeen of Kent" as a jumping off point for the project and a turbine assembly centre. The town was expecting the creation of hundreds of new jobs.

Paul Golby, chief executive of E.ON UK told The Financial Times that the company was still committed to Array, but warned: "The economics are looking pretty difficult."

Falling prices of oil, gas and carbon dioxide emissions permits have raised concerns over the finances.

Doubts over the future of London Array and other schemes in the pipeline will not please the Government which has invested huge political capital in renewable energy, setting high targets for the proportion of Britain’s energy needs met by wind and water.

Consortium members are likely to ask the Government to raise its level of subsidy, arguing that the private sector should not bear so much risk from a scheme that is in the national interest.

London Array has been in the planning stage for years, and a team of engineers have been working on it for some time.

The scheme would be big enough to supply a quarter of London’s domestic energy or the whole of Kent and East Sussex.

The turbines would be as high as the London Eye, with rotors as long as a football pitch and blades as wide as the wingspan of a Jumbo jet.

But the project has proved controversial. While Thanet council backed the project, Swale council objected on behalf of residents of Graveney, near Faversham, who claimed a proposed sub-station that would take energy from the turbines and feed it into the National Grid was in the wrong place. However, an inspector ruled the scheme could go ahead.

Shell, a former consortium partner, pulled out last year over similar fears about funding such an expensive project. Shell was replaced by Masdar, an Abu Dhabi energy group, which owns 20 per cent. The other half is owned by DONG, a Danish energy group.