Irish Sea Windfarm Scrapped

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Plans for one of the largest planned offshore windfarms in Europe have been scrapped by Danish energy company Dong Energy A/S (Fredericia, Denmark) and British gas and electricity company, Centrica plc (OTC:CPYYY) (Windsor, England).

The companies' joint venture company, Celtic Array, will no longer proceed with the Irish Sea Celtic Array project, which had the potential to generate up 4,200-megawatts (MW) of electricity. The company cited economic reasons. It said that the decision to stop development comes as a result of an assessment of the zone, "which has confirmed challenging ground conditions that make the project economically unviable with current technology".

A spokesperson for the project said: "We're disappointed not to be progressing with our work to develop wind farms in the Irish Sea Zone, however our assessments have shown that ground conditions are such that it's not viable for us to proceed with the technology that's available at this stage. We're extremely grateful for the support that has been shown to us and would like to thank everyone who has taken part in the development of our proposals for the Rhiannon wind farm and other potential projects."

The Crown Estate, which manages the U.K. seabed and granted the original license to Celtic Array, announced that it has agreed to the venture's request to end its offshore wind zone agreement for the Round 3 Irish Sea Zone.

Head of Offshore Wind for the Crown Estate, Huub den Rooijen said: "We have confirmed the developers' assessment of the zone, which shows that challenging ground conditions make this project economically unviable with current technology. We understand that this will be disappointing for many but improvements and de-risking of new technologies may one day in the future make it economic to develop in some parts of the area. Whilst we have no plans to re-offer the zone to the market, to improve the understanding of the complex geology in this region we intend to make available the wealth of data from Celtic Array's activity through our Marine Data Exchange in due course".

This is another major blow to the U.K.'s offshore wind plans, which are the most ambitious in the world.

In March, SSE plc (Perth, Scotland) drastically reduced its interests in a number of large offshore wind projects worth over €24 billion ($32.9 billion) blaming limited government support and concerns over return on investment. For additional information, see March 31, 2014, article - SSE Slashes Offshore Wind Plans.

Last December, RWE Innogy, the UK arm of German energy giant RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen), pulled the plug on the massive 1,500-MW Atlantic Array Project proposed for the Bristol Channel, blaming technical difficulties over building in deeper waters and adverse seabed conditions. For additional information, see December 2, 2013, article - RWE Scraps Giant U.K. Offshore Windfarm.

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