New Leases for U.K. Offshore Windfarms

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - The Crown Estate has signed a lease for two offshore windfarms located in the U.K.'s Hornsea Zone with a potential capacity of 1,800-megawatts (MW).

An Agreement for Lease (AfL) was signed with SMart Wind, a joint venture formed by Germany's Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany) and Irish company, Mainstream Renewable Power (Dublin, Ireland).

The lease concerns the Optimus Wind and Breesea projects which SMart Wind claimed are on track to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in 2014. This is the company's second lease with the Crown Estate. In 2011, SMart Wind acquired the lease for the its first phase of projects in the Hornsea Zone, the Heron Wind and Njord windfarms, which together could have a capacity of up to 1,200 MW. The company said it will be submitting planning applications for both projects to the Planning Inspectorate this summer.

"This is great milestone for SMart Wind and the Hornsea Zone," claimed Barry Hopkins, General Manager of SMart Wind. "With Heron Wind and Njord due to be submitted for planning this summer we are now focused on taking Optimus Wind and Breesea successfully through to the Planning Inspectorate for next year. Mainstream Renewable Power, along with our partners Siemens Financial Services, is fully committed to helping the U.K. meet its 2020 targets as well as bringing more indigenous, free-fuel energy to British homes."

Joern Harde, Commercial Head of SMart Wind added: "Siemens Project Ventures and Mainstream Renewable Power, together with our partner DONG Energy (for the initial projects), are now in an advanced stage of development of up to 3,000 MW of U.K. offshore wind projects".

The Hornsea zone between 34km and 190km off the Yorkshire coast and covers an area of 4,735 km². If fully developed, it would be capable of generating enough electricity to meet 4% of all electricity demand in the U.K. and power approximately three million homes.

In late 2011, Danish energy company Dong Energy (Fredericia, Denmark) invested 17.7 million euros ($23.3 million) to buy a 33.3% stake in the Heron Wind and Njord projects, with an additional option for a further 1,000 MW in the zone. For additional information, see August 21, 2013, article - Dong Energy Acquires Stake in Hornsea Offshore Wind Projects.

The Hornsea Zone in one of the U.K.'s 'Round 3' zones for future offshore projects. Combined the Round 3 projects could meet a quarter of the U.K.'s electricity demand by 2020. The full list of the Crown Estate Round 3 winners are:

- 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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