UK awards licences for 9 UK offshore wind projects

LONDON: Successful bids for nine UK offshore wind projects have been recently awarded to energy companies. In total, turbines to be installed in the nine zones can produce at least 32GW of energy, a quarter of the country’s required electricity.

The consortium of Npower and Norway’s Statkraft received the licence for Dogger Bank, the largest zone, which can generate nine gigawatts of capacity.

The second biggest zone, with a potential capacity of 7.2GW, is at Norfolk Bank. The licence has been won by both Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft, a Swedish energy company.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Keith Anderson stated that the Norfolk Bank project will help generate enough green energy to meet the annual electricity needs of over five million households in the UK.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown meanwhile said that the £75 billion offshore wind industry can generate up to 70,000 news jobs by 2020. However, Maria McCaffery, CEO of British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), advised that the UK will only benefit from the boost in engineering, manufacturing and skills if the wind turbines to be used are to be manufactured locally.

Other offshore wind farms include: the 1.3GW Moray Firth zone, won by SeaEnergy and EDP; the 3.5GW Firth of Forth zone, given to SSE and Fluor; the 4GW Hornsea zone, granted to Mainstream Renewable Power, Siemens and Hochtief; the 600MW Hastings zone, won by E.On and Renewables UK; the 900MW Isle of Wight zone, given to Eneco; the 1.5GW Bristol Channel zone, granted to RWE Npower; and the 4.2GW Irish Sea zone, awarded to Centrica and RES.