DONG on song as budget ROCS
DONG Energy has decided to build the offshore wind farm Walney II in the Irish Sea. The move is a result of the British government' s increase in funding towards sustainable energy, which the British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling announced in his budget presentation last month.
Combined, the wind farms will have a total capacity of 367 MW and consist of 102 turbines. The planned completion date for Walney I is at the beginning of 2011. Walney II is expected to be completed in 2012. The total volume of power produced will be the equivalent of the annual consumption of about 250,000 households.
‘It's encouraging that the investment regime has now been created to allow us to implement our strategy of considerably expanding DONG Energy's position within sustainable energy. With the 2 ROCs, we can now begin the construction of Walney I and II’, said DONG Energy CEO Anders Eldrup.
The turbines that are to be used in the Walney projects are part of a supply contract concluded between DONG Energy and Siemens Wind Power in March 2009. The agreement is the world's largest offshore wind turbine contract and concerns the supply of up to 500 turbines for DONG Energy's planned offshore wind farm projects. Walney will use up the first 102 of the turbines detailed in the contract.
The UK Budget is also likely to result in what would be the world’s largest wind farm, the London Array, going ahead. Consortium partners DONG Energy, E.ON, and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Company will now conclude their review processes before making an announcement on the final investment decision.
‘With 2 ROCs, DONG Energy finds that a good foundation has been created to go along with the London Array project as well. We will now discuss this with our partners’, added Anders Eldrup.
To be built 12 miles off the Kent and Essex coasts in the outer Thames Estuary, the £3bn London Array will consist of up to 341 turbines installed over a four year period and generating up to 1,000MW of electricity, meeting the needs of 750,000 homes. The first phase would be completed in time to power the 2012 London Olympic Games.
