SSE Cuts Size of Galloper Offshore Windfarm

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - Plans to extend one of the U.K.'s largest offshore windfarms have been significantly reduced.

Scottish and Southern Energy (PINK:SSEZY) (SSE) (Perth, Scotland) and partner RWE Innogy, the U.K. arm of German energy major RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany), have decided to cut the size of the Galloper offshore windfarm to by almost a third, from 504-megawatts (MW) to 340 MW.

Located 27 kilometers (km) off the coast of Suffolk, in the east of England, Galloper is an extension to the company's existing Greater Gabbard offshore windfarm which is located nearby. SSE and RWE Innogy were granted permission for the original 504 MW Galloper project earlier this summer. For additional information, see June 5, 2013, article - Green Light for U.K. Galloper Offshore Windfarm.

"The next offshore wind farm in SSE's development pipeline is the Galloper project, which is located close to the existing Greater Gabbard development," SSE stated in its half yearly financial report. "Since receiving the Development Consent Order the project team have been working to establish the most efficient and viable scale for the project in the current energy market climate and have decided to proceed with a nominal capacity of 340 MW. An application has been submitted for an Investment Contract under the U.K. government's EMR framework and a final investment decision should be made in due course."

SSE said it, and its partners, are working on reducing the costs of developing offshore windfarms.

"A robust, sustainable and ultimately lower cost supply chain offers significant value to renewable energy developers and is essential to delivering the U.K.'s offshore wind potential," the company explained. "As Great Britain's largest owner, developer and operator of renewable energy, SSE has an important role to play and is focused on forming strategic alliances and investments to secure this supply chain.

The company is running a number of initiatives to drive down costs, including the development of the U.K.'s national offshore wind turbine testing facility at Hunterston in North Ayrshire. In partnership with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), Scottish Enterprise and leading turbine suppliers Mitsubishi Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) and Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany), up to three prototype offshore wind turbines will be tested at the facility for a period of five years. Construction of the facility began in March 2013 and the first turbine from Siemens was erected in early October. The site is expected to be fully operational by mid 2014.

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