Two Scottish Offshore Projects Seek Planning

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Planning has been submitted for two massive offshore windfarms with a combined generating capacity of more 1,000-megawatts (MW) off the Scottish coast.

Seagreen Wind Energy Ltd, a joint venture company formed by Scottish energy major Scottish and Southern Energy plc (PINK:SSEZY) (SSE) (Perth) and US engineering company Fluor Limited, has submitted plans to Marine Scotland, for two windfarms to be located side by side in the Firth of Forth. Each windfarm will boast 75 turbines and have a potential generating capacity of 525 MW. This is the second of the country's Round 3 offshore windfarms to move forward to the planning stage. The projects form part of a group awarded leases in early 2010 by The Crown Estate, which believes that the Round 3 projects have the potential to generate a quarter of the U.K.'s electricity demand by the end of the decade. They represent a potential total investment exceeding €124 billion ($162.6 billion).

Last month, Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd (MORL), which is 75% owned by EDP Renovaveis (Lisbon, Portugal) and 25% owned by SeaEnergy Renewables (Westhill, Scotland), submitted an application for three proposed windfarms in the Moray Firth which will have a combined generating capacity of approximately 1,500 MW. The projects are the Telford, Stevenson and McColl windfarms. For additional information see September 10, 2012 article - First 'Round 3' Offshore Project Seeks Planning in U.K..

Seagreen's so-called 'Phase 1 applications' are for two separate offshore wind farms, Project Alpha and Project Bravo, located 27 kilometres (km) and 38km respectively from the Angus coastline. Sub-sea cables will transmit the power produced by the projects to a landfall point at Carnoustie on the Angus coast. A separate planning application is being prepared for the onshore transmission infrastructure, which will connect the projects from landfall to the grid connection point at Tealing, north of Dundee.

"Offshore wind is an outstanding resource which, when harnessed, will make a very significant contribution to meeting Scotland and the U.K.'s renewable energy targets for 2020," said Richard Escott, Head of Offshore Development at SSE Renewables. "This is an important milestone for the Seagreen consortium in developing the Firth of Forth Zone, Scotland's largest renewable energy project. We look forward to working with the relevant bodies to ensure a positive outcome for the application." The Crown Estate's Round 3 lease winners are as follows:

Moray Firth Zone - Moray Offshore Renewables Limited, which is 75% owned by EDP Renovaveis (Lisbon, Portugal) and 25% owned by SeaEnergy Renewables (Westhill, Scotland) - 1.3-GW capacity

Firth of Forth Zone - SeaGreen Wind Energy Limited, equally owned by SSE Renewables (Dublin, Ireland) and Fluor Corporation (Irving, Texas) - 3.5-GW capacity

Dogger Bank Zone - the Forewind Consortium, equally owned by SSE Renewables, RWE npower Renewables (Swindon, England), Statoil ASA (NYSE:STO) (Stavangar, Norway) and Statkraft AS (Oslo, Norway) - 9 GW of capacity

Hornsea Zone - Siemens Project Ventures and Mainstream Renewable Power, a consortium equally owned by Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Project Ventures and involving Hochtief Construction - 4-GW capacity

Norfolk Bank Zone - East Anglia Offshore Wind limited, which is equally owned by ScottishPower Renewables (Glasgow, Scotland) and Vattenfall Vindkraft (Stockholm, Sweden) - 7.2 GW of capacity

Hastings Zone - Eon Climate and Renewables UK - 0.6 GW of capacity

Isle of Wight Zone - Eneco New Energy (Rotterdam, Netherlands) - 0.9 GW of capacity

Bristol Channel Zone - RWE npower Renewables - 1.5-GW capacity

Irish Sea Zone - Centrica Renewable Energy, part of Centrica plc (OTC:CPYYY) (Windsor, England), with RES Group - 4.2-GW capacity

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