Eni enters UK offshore wind market

Eni has entered the UK offshore wind market for electricity production by acquiring a 20% stake in the Dogger Bank (A and B) 2.4 GW project from Equinor and SSE Renewables.

The project involves the installation of 190 state-of-the-art wind turbines situated approximately 80 miles from the UK coast. Each turbine has a capacity of 13 MW for a total capacity of 2.4 GW. At its full 3.6 GW capacity, Dogger Bank will be the world’s largest project of its kind, generating around 5% of UK demand for renewable electricity and supplying energy to approximately 6 million British families.

Commenting on the news, Claudio Descalzi, CEO, Eni, says: ‘For Eni, entering the offshore wind market in Northern Europe is a great opportunity to gain further skills in the sector… and to make a substantial contribution to the 2025 target of 5 GW of installed capacity from renewables, an intermediate step towards the more ambitious target of zero net direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in Europe by 2050.’

Decarbonisation is structurally embedded in Eni’s overall strategy and ambitions. It plans to generate 25 GW of installed capacity from renewable sources by 2035, reaching 55 GW by 2050. The Italian company currently acts as operator of the Liverpool Bay Area project north-west England, for which it was recently awarded a CO₂ appraisal and storage licence by the UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA). Together with BP, Equinor, National Grid, Shell and Total, it has formed the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), with BP as operator. The partnership aims to develop offshore CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure that will serve two decarbonisation projects – Net Zero Teesside and Zero Carbon Humber – that will capture and store CO₂ emissions from industrial sites and power plants, and develop a market for ‘blue’ hydrogen.*

*‘Blue’ hydrogen uses natural gas as a source, together with carbon capture and storage (CCS) to minimise greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.