Transmission links to 2.8 Gigawatts of offshore wind farms are to be put out to competitive tender with the winning bidders to be announced in summer next year.

The Ofgem tender is the second tender round for offshore wind farm high voltage transmission links worth an estimated £1.9 billion (over US$ 3 billion). The tender is aimed at cost effectively incentivising the building of the necessary grid infrastructure to connect 6 UK offshore wind farms to the onshore grid network.

Companies will be bidding to own and operate the electricity cable links to the offshore wind farms. Ofgem say there was keen interest shown in the first round which saw £1.1. billion (US$ 1.75 bn) investement in offshore grid transmission links.

Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change Charles Hendrey said: “We have 40% of Europe’s wind and we have 11,000 km of coastline. We ought to be using those resources for our future energy security, but to do this we need to get the investment in the infrastructure that will make this happen.

I hope the second round of tendering for owning and operating the links to offshore wind farms will be as successful as the first, where investment interest was four times the necessary level. This competition also means savings for generators and consumers which I very much welcome.”

Ofgem’s CE Alistair Buchanan said “Britain needs to attract £200 billion of investement in its energy industry over the next 10 years – £20 billion will be for offshore tramsmission links. Therefore it is very encouraging that we have seen such strong competition for the first round of transmission links“.

The first offshore wind farms expected to be facilitated by this (second) grid network competition are Gwynt-y-Mor off the north Wales coast, Lincs and London Array off the east coast. These will be followed by Humber Gateway and Race Bank in the Wash and West of Duddon Sands, off the Lancashire coast.

The announcement comes as another offshore wind farm is commissioned in UK waters off the coast of Kent.

Thanet wind farm comprises 100 Vestas wind turbines each rated at 3 Megawatts.  Thanet owner and operator Vattenfall say it is the largest operational wind farm in the world.

According to the RenewableUK, the UK now has nearly 18GW of wind capacity either consented, in construction or in the planning system in addition to 5GW in operation.

Chief Executive Maria McCaffery MBE, said:

“Five gigawatts is an important milestone for two reasons: it takes us within reach of our 2010 targets on renewable electricity, while proving that each successive gigawatt takes less and less time to deploy. Renewable energy generally and wind energy in particular is not alternative energy any longer – it is absolutely mainstream.”

Øystein Løseth, President and CEO of Vattenfall, said:
“Today we are proud to launch Thanet offshore wind farm, the world’s largest operating offshore wind farm. We are pleased that our investment is making a substantial contribution to the delivery of UK renewable energy objectives and to the Isle of Thanet economy. Vattenfall is working hard to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from its operations, and projects like Thanet Offshore Wind Farm are a cornerstone of delivery.”

The 317 megawatt (MW) wind farm is located between 17 and 22 km north of the town of Sheringham. Construction work began in March of this year and the wind farm is expected to be generating green electricity by the end of 2011.

The electricity export cable laying operation is programmed to begin in late August. The cable installation will begin at Weybourne Hope, west of the coastal town of Sheringham, and work will continue for around six weeks.

Wells harbour on the North Norfolk coast will be the operational base for the offshore wind farm. Once in operation, the wind turbines will need daily maintenance by teams of technicians travelling to and from the new outer harbour at Wells-next-the-Sea. It is proposed that these technicians, and the wind farm company’s management and administration, be based at a new office and storage facility at Egmere.

The Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm is owned equally by Statoil and Statkraft through the joint venture company Scira Offshore Energy Limited. Statoil is the operator for the project during the development phase. Scira will be the operator of the wind farm. To find out more visit the Statoil website.

Picture source: Statoil

Gunfleet Sands wind farm provides for the average annual needs of 125,000 homes and unlike the Minister offsetts the production of a significant amount of carbon dioxide.

The Cape Cod wind farm will consist of 130 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 420 Megawatts (MW).

The decision comes after 9 years of information requests and legislative tussels between the developer – Cape Wind Associates, wind energy supporters and vociferous opposers.

Executive Director of grassroots support group Clean Power Now said:

“We applaud Secretary Salazar for his vision and leadership in making this landmark decision and look forward to the day when the wind farm in Nantucket Sound will be producing the majority of the electrical needs of the Cape and islands establishing our region as a national model of sustainability and a clean energy future.”

Clean Power Now and the Developer Cape Wind Associates are urging opponents not to progress further lawsuits and other stalling tactics. They say that this will only delay the inevitable and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

Clean Power Now secured 800 signatures in a letter of support to Ken Salazar whilst Greenpeace collected 16,000 support letters.

Siemens is looking at sites for the plant in the North East and East of England with good harbour access being a fundamental requirement.

The wind turbine company sees the UK offshore wind energy market as growing significantly in the future and says the 3rd round of offshore wind farm licensing by the Crown Estate will create a demand for 32 gigwatts.

Peter Loscher, President and CEO of Siemens AG said:

“With the new wind turbine production plant in the UK we’re pushing ahead with our strategy of investments in attractive growth markets for ecofriendly technology. In the foreseeable future the  wind power market in the UK will be characterized by major offshore projects, and we’ll extend our market leadership with the new production plant”

Siemens is one of the two biggest offshore wind turbine companies alongside Vestas and has already built 11 offshore wind farms, over half of these in the UK.  The company’s turbines also make up the largest onshore wind farm in Europe – Whitelee near Glasgow and Siemens say that around 40% of the wind energy in the UK is generated by their wind turbines.

Back in April 2001, following a pre-qualification process, 18 companies were selected by the Crown Estate to progress projects in the first round of offshore wind farm sites on the UK seabed. This represented an unprecedented step by the then Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in pushing forward offshore wind farms. Under the agreements, the companies were given a three-year period in which to secure the required consents for a full lease to be granted by the Crown Estate.

npower renewables built the first commercial scale offshore wind farm in UK waters in 2003 between Rhyl and Prestatyn off the north coast of Wales. This 30 turbine wind farm known as North Hoyle was built with help from capital grants and now generates enough green electricity for the annual average needs of 40,000 homes.

Over 6 years later npower has purchased the rights for the development of sister project “Rhyll Flats” from Celtic Offshore Wind Limited (COWL). The site is located to the west of North Hoyle 5 miles from shore. 18 of the planned 25 wind turbines have now been constructed. Inter – array cable installation is progressing and the onshore substation at Towyn was completed earlier this year. The first export of power from Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm occurred on 15 July 2009 and completion is expected by the end of 2009. An npower spokesperson said “Everying is going well and by 2010 Rhyl Flats will be offsetting the release of tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide every year”.

The Government’s Energy Minister, Lord Hunt said “We’re the world number one for offshore wind generation and with Rhly Flats plugged in we’re adding to the amount of electricity we’re generating”.

Several of the Round 1 offshore wind energy sites were abandoned further to consenting or construction issues and Rhyl Flats is the last Round 1 site expected to be kicked into life.

The 3rd round of offshore wind energy projects was announced in December 2007 and will involve the investigation of a whopping 25 GW’s worth of offshore wind sites.

A strategic environmental assessment carried out by The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) calculated that up to 10,000 km2 of sea area would be needed to accommodate 25 Gigawatts (GW) of installed offshore wind energy capacity. This area of sea could be difficult to find given the number of ecological constraints – birds and marine life – and the need for shallow waters for economic reasons.

The map shows the area of sea with 0-60m depth potentially suitable for development, with a buffer around oil and gas facilities and a distance from the shore of 12 nautical miles. Most of the economically suitable areas are in the shallower waters close to shore. If we are to make an inroads into our renewable energy targets some of these ‘constraint buffers’ will need to be re-prioritised – does it matter that we will be able to see the wind farms from the coast, if we are going to produce 20% of our energy from renewable sources?

The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) believes that finding space in the UK seas for offshore wind farms is “vital to reaching our 2020 renewable energy targets“.

The report was commissioned by the department of Energy and Climate Change and recommends that offshore wind energy developments should minimise impacts on the tourism and fishing industries by locating new turbines at least 22km from the coast.

Maria McCaffery, Chief Executive of the British Wind Energy Association said “there is enough potential for wind, wave, and tidal to supply every UK household with electricity – and then some…the industry received a powerful signal today that we are on the right track. The Government now has to act decisively to remove other obstacles hampering the growth of the wind, wave and tidal sectors”.

The significant costs and risks of building wind turbines 22km off the coast will only be taken on by investors if the grid infrastructure can be put in place cost effectively. UK energy regulator Ofgem will be managing a competitive bidding process for the grid infrastructure required with figures for contracts quoted at around $13.8 billion.

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