Dong Energy, E.ON, Masdar; Dong Energy, Centrica and Siemens Project Ventures; The Crown Estate, Inch Cape Offshore, Repsol Nuevas Energias UK, EDP Renováveis, Marine Scotland; Guangdong Electric Power Design Institute, SgurrEnergy, Wood Group Kenny; RWE Innogy, VSMC; Vestas

Weekly Intelligence Brief: 1 – 8 July, 2013

PM Cameron inaugurates London Array

In a major development for the offshore wind sector in the United Kingdom, the 630MW London Array, located in the Outer Thames Estuary, was official inaugurated by Danish state-owned energy group Dong Energy, E.ON and Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar last week. The site hosts the biggest offshore wind farm in the world.

The ceremony to commemorate the occasion was attended by Prime Minister David Cameron, alongside other dignitaries. Over 350 people attended the inauguration in Margate, Kent.

Significantly, the entities spoke about cutting the cost of offshore wind. Tony Cocker, CEO of E.ON UK, the plan is to reduce the cost of offshore wind by 40% by 2015.

Brent Cheshire, UK Country Chairman, Dong Energy mentioned that as projects get even bigger and move further offshore, the focus should be on leveraging the advantages of scale to bring down the costs.

London Array, which is located around 20km off the coasts of Kent and Essex on a 100km2 site, first started generating power in October last year. The 175th turbine was bought online in March this year. 

Milestone for Lincs Offshore Wind Farm

Danish state-owned energy group Dong Energy continues to make progress with its offshore wind projects. The company last week inaugurated the 270 MW Lincs Offshore Wind Farm, located eight kilometres off the coastline of Skegness in North east England.

Lincs is a joint venture between Dong Energy, Centrica and Siemens Project Ventures.

The project is to feature 75 of Siemens’ 3.6MW turbines. Currently, half of the 75 turbines are generating power as the commissioning work enters the final stage. It is being expected that the whole site will be fully operational by the end of August this year.

The 75th turbine was installed in March this year. Once complete, Lincs will be managed from Centrica’s new operations and maintenance base in Grimsby, which was opened last year as a major new hub for the business. The base includes the Siemens service team and will function as a shared resource for the Lincs, Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms.

Crown Estate applauds progress of offshore wind in the UK

The Crown Estate has applauded the inauguration of two offshore wind farms – the London Array and the Lincs offshore wind farm - with a combined capacity of 900 MW. The entity highlighted that the offshore wind programme operational capacity is now 3.6 GW, equating to approximately 5% of the UK’s electricity generation capacity.

As of the beginning of July, the U. K. now has 1,091 offshore wind turbines installed of which 1,037 are operational and 54 are being commissioned, with a further 250 in construction. Once complete, the combined capacity will amount to nearly 5 GW across 24 sites.

The knowledge and experience gained from constructing and running the largest fleet of offshore wind turbines is expected to fuel new developments in this sector. It also paves for opportunities for local people and businesses, stated the Crown Estate.

Consent application submitted for Inch Cape project

Inch Cape Offshore, an entity set up by Repsol Nuevas Energias UK and EDP Renováveis, has submitted consent application to Marine Scotland for the Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm.

The site lies in the outer Firth of Tay region. The site is located approximately 15 - 22 km to the east of the Angus coastline in Scotland. It is expected to consist of around 180 wind turbines covering an area of about 150 km2 with an estimated installed capacity of 1,000 MW.

According to bbc.co.uk, the company has undertaken a full environmental impact assessment, with the results available for public viewing at locations around East Lothian, Fife and Angus.

The award of offshore wind farm sites under The Crown Estate’s Scottish Territorial Waters leasing programme was announced four years ago.

SgurrEnergy bags contact for Chinese project

Scottish renewable energy consultancy SgurrEnergy has recently been chosen to provide expert support for the development of the first offshore wind farm in the Guangdong province, China.

The contract, which will be delivered over two years, will see SgurrEnergy, part of Wood Group, advise the Guangdong Electric Power Design Institute (GEDI) on its Zhuhai offshore wind farm project.

The company, along with offshore experts, Wood Group Kenny, will advise on areas such as wind farm layout, site selection and design, ocean hydrometeorology and will conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment.

SgurrEnergy has been involved in the Chinese offshore wind industry since 2007.

RWE Innogy, VSMC sign deal

Dutch company Visser & Smit Marine Contracting (VSCM) has been contracted by German firm RWE Innogy to lay and bury the infield cables of the Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm in Germany.

The task would feature installation of inter-array cables at the 295MW project and to connect the 48 wind turbines with the offshore transformer substation.

Work will start in Q1 2014 with the installation and burying of the 52 cables that connect the wind turbines to the offshore high voltage station.

RWE Innogy has already worked with VSCM in the Thornton Bank offshore wind farm.

First V112 offshore turbines installed

Danish wind manufacturer Vestas has shared that first eight V112-3.0 MW offshore turbines have been successfully installed on the 48MW offshore project in Kårehamn, Sweden.

In addition, the turbines were also part of the first shipment of turbines from Vestas’ pre-assembly facility in Esbjerg, Denmark.

The 48 MW Kårehamn project is the first of several V112-3.0 MW offshore projects to be constructed in the next two years. During 2013 and 2014 Vestas will also ship 73 V112-3.0 MW turbines to the 219 MW Humber Gateway project in the UK, also built by E.ON, as well as 72 V112-3.0 MW turbines for the 216 MW Northwind Offshore Wind Farm in Belgium.