Greater Gabbard and Walney Windfarms Generate First Electricity

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Two of the U.K.'s largest offshore windfarms have generated their first electricity this week, according to joint owner Scottish and Southern Energy plc (OTC:SSEZY) (SSE) (Perth, Scotland).

The first three turbines at the 500-megawatt (MW) Greater Gabbard windfarm, which is 23 kilometres off the coast of Suffolk in the North Sea, are sending power to the National Grid. Construction on the £1.3 billion ($2 million) project, which is 50% owned by RWE npower renewables (Swindon, England), the U.K. renewables division of German energy giant RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany), started in 2009. The windfarm is expected to be fully commissioned in 2012, which is a year later than originally expected. When complete, Greater Gabbard will be capable of generating power for approximately 530,000 homes.

"This is a major milestone in the development of Walney and Greater Gabbard offshore windfarms," said Colin Hood, SSE's chief operating officer. "As the U.K.'s leading generator of electricity from renewable sources, SSE is committed to helping to increase further the amount of renewable electricity generation in the U.K., and the export of electricity at Walney and Greater Gabbard is a step toward achieving this."

In addition to Greater Gabbard, the first turbines at the Walney offshore windfarm, which is in the Irish Sea off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness, have been powered up and are exporting energy to the grid. Walney is divided into the Walney 1 and Walney 2 windfarms, which have capacities of 183.6 MW each. When complete, they will be capable of generating enough power for about 320,000 homes. All 51 turbines have been installed at Walney 1, where construction began in March last year; it will be fully commissioned in the first half of this year. Construction of Walney 2 is due to begin this March, and it will be fully commissioned by the end of 2011. SSE holds a 25.1% stake in the project, which is majority-owned by energy company Dong Energy A/S (Fredericia, Denmark).

Niels Bergh-Hansen, the executive vice president of Dong Energy, said: "The United Kingdom has a very ambitious plan for expanding the production of renewable energy and a target of making green energy and reliability of supply go hand in hand, and we are pleased to be able to contribute to the expansion of renewable energy. The first power from Walney is a tangible result of our efforts to increase our production of renewable energy."

Last May, extension permits were awarded to RWE and SSE by The Crown Estate for Greater Gabbard, granting more space and the license to set up the Galloper windfarm with a capacity of 504 MW. At the same time, Dong was granted permission to add 750 MW to the Walney windfarms and up to 234 MW to its Burbo Bank windfarm. For additional details about the U.K. windfarm extensions, see May 20, 2010, article - Extension Licenses Granted by Crown Estate for U.K. Offshore Wind Power Development.

IIR's Renewable Energy Database provides extensive coverage on the wind energy, geothermal, hydroelectric, landfill gas-to-energy and utility-scale solar power plants throughout North America, and is now expanding coverage across the world.

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