Giant East Anglia ONE Windfarm Enters Planning

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- An application has been lodged to build the first phase of one of the U.K.'s largest planned offshore windfarms.

ScottishPower Renewables (Glasgow, Scotland) and Vattenfall AB (Stockholm, Sweden) have formally submitted an application to build the 1,200-megawatt (MW) East Anglia ONE offshore windfarm, off the coast of East Anglia in England. The proposed project, which will be overseen by their East Anglia Offshore Wind (EAOW) joint venture company, will boast up 325 wind turbines spread across a 300 square kilometre (km2) region of the southern North Sea. The project will take three years to construct and, on completion, will generate enough electricity for approximately 770,000 homes.

East Anglia ONE forms the first phase of a much larger 7,200 MW zone, awarded to the partners by the Crown Estate in January 2010, one of nine offshore zones included in the £100 billion ($1.6 billion) Round 3 bidding process. The East Anglia Array is dwarfed only by the Dogger Bank Zone, which aims to have 9,000 MW of capacity. The Round 3 offshore projects are expected to deliver more than 25,000 MW to the grid. For additional information, see January 11, 2010, article - Winners of U.K. Offshore Wind Jackpot Revealed.

East Anglia ONE is the first of six planned windfarms for the zone. If they all proceed, then 7,200 MW would enter operation in the coming decade, generating enough power for around 4.6 million homes.

"This is the largest renewable energy project that either Vattenfall or ScottishPower Renewables are developing anywhere in the world," commented Andy Paine, EAOW Programme Director. We are delighted to have achieved this major milestone today, following three years of detailed planning and community consultation. East Anglia ONE is a major project that could make a significant contribution to the U.K.'s carbon reduction targets, and is larger than any offshore windfarm currently in operation. Thousands of skilled jobs will be required to construct and manage a project on this scale, which highlights the importance of the offshore wind sector for the UK economy following the recession. Offshore wind will support a new supply chain that will attract billions of pounds of investment and create highly- skilled employment in the engineering and construction sectors for decades."

The application will be considered by the National Infrastructure Directorate but work already begun in recent years is expected to accelerate this year. The partners believe that onshore construction could start in 2016, with offshore work starting in 2017 and first power generation kicking in the following year.

Another Round 3 windfarm, the 700 MW Rampion project, ran into some problems last week when owner E.ON U.K. pulled its application just weeks after submitting it. Located off the southern coast of England, the application for Rampion was withdrawn due to E.ON's desire to carry out 'extra consultation work'. For additional information, see January 9, 2013, article - E.ON Pulls Rampion U.K. Offshore Windfarm Application.

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