DONG Energy to build the world’s biggest offshore wind farm

Britain’s offshore wind energy industry is about to start breaking records again, with announcements for two giant new wind farms to be located in the Irish and North Seas.

DONG Energy is to construct the proposed 660 MW Walney Extension Offshore Wind Farm in the Irish Sea, approximately 19 km off the coast of Cumbria. The final investment decision was taken, says DONG, after it secured all necessary consents, completed site assessments and signed the majority of the contracts for supply and installation to build the project.

Meanwhile, RWE Innogy announced three new project partners for the proposed 336 MW Galloper Wind Farm, which will enable construction of this project off the coast of Suffolk, to commence this month. The UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), Siemens Financial Services and Macquarie Capital have joined RWE Innogy in becoming 25% joint equity partners of the project. A previous partner, SSE, had backed away earlier this year.

DONG’s Walney Extension is expected to be commissioned in 2018, at which time it will be the biggest offshore wind farm in the world, surpassing the 630 MW London Array which was commissioned in 2014 by DONG Energy and partners. The wind farm extension will be located next to the existing 367 MW Walney Offshore Wind Farm.

DONG has decided to deploy two different types of turbines: 40 MHI Vestas Offshore Wind 8 MW turbines and 47 Siemens 7 MW offshore turbines will be installed. Walney Extension will be constructed and operated under the government’s Electricity Market Reform Final Investment Decision-enabling regime, with a fixed price for its output for the first 15 years of production.

For Galloper, as part of the overall partnership agreement, Siemens will supply and install 56 6 MW turbines from May 2017, and deliver a 15-year maintenance contract. To be located around 27 km off the coast of Suffolk in water depths of between 27 and 36 m, the wind power plant is scheduled to be fully operational by March 2018. Prompt completion is necessary so that the offshore project can still qualify for remuneration with Renewable Obligations Certificates (ROCs).

The Galloper project is an extension of the already on-line Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm, which has a capacity of 504 MW, where 140 Siemens wind turbines have been generating power since 2012.

A consortium of 12 commercial banks and the European Investment Bank are to provide the £1.4bn debt facilities, with BNP Paribas acting as financial advisor to the project.

RenewableUK, the trade association representing the wind industry, said that confirmation of the two projects, which have a combined capacity of nearly 1 GW, means that the UK now has more than 10 GW of offshore wind capacity either operational or under construction, or with financial support fully secured. This consolidates Britain’s global lead in offshore wind, and will double the current operational capacity of just over 5 GW.

RenewableUK’s Director of Policy for Economics and Regulation, Dr Gordon Edge, said ‘The government’s advisory body, the Committee on Climate Change, is now recommending we install 1 to 2 GW of offshore wind a year throughout the 2020s to meet out carbon reduction goals, so we could reach as much as 30 GW by 2030. The CCC says offshore wind is set to become cheaper than gas during the next decade, so it offers excellent value for money in terms of keeping bills down. We’re also generating jobs, with 13,000 people already working in the industry – that could increase to 44,000 in less than 10 years.’