Policy probed as Thanet wind farm opens
MJ’s Peter Barker joined the mainstream media scrum on board the Pride of Burgundy last week to photograph, left to right, Bob Bayford, Leader Thanet District Council; Øystein Løseth, President and CEO of Vattenfall; and Chris Huhne MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
Stockholm based energy company Vattenfall AB celebrated the commissioning last week, on time and on budget, of the 300MW Thanet Offshore Windfarm to an invited audience of VIPs and the world’s media.
The £900m wind farm is situated in the English Channel, with 100 turbines producing 300MW of power. The official opening ceremony of what is currently the world’s largest offshore wind farm was carried out at sea on board the P&O ferry Pride of Burgundy by Øystein Løseth, President and CEO of Vattenfall; Chris Huhne MP, The British Government’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change; and Bob Bayford, Leader of Thanet District Council.
Earlier they were joined by Ole Bigum Nielsen, Head of Offshore Wind; Anders Dahl, Head of Renewables; and Ivo Banek, Head of Media Relations with Vattenfall, at a press conference where they faced probing questions from the media, particularly directed at the Secretary of State regarding government policy on renewables and support for ports and the supply chain involved in windfarms.
Mr Huhne outlined the coalition government’s renewables policy, stating that while subject to the forthcoming comprehensive spending review, his department recognised the importance of the supply chain. He said they would be foolish if they weren’t encouraging it in every way possible, including working with Business Secretary Vince Cable in supporting the skills side of the engineering industry.
He highlighted the ‘dramatic changes in the cost of the technology’ of renewable energy. The government was taking a ‘wide portfolio’ long term approach, with offshore wind a big part of the mix. As the country started from so far back compared with others, he wanted the UK to move from what he described with a football analogy as the conference league into the premiership of renewable energy. He added it isn’t an ‘either or’ situation with various forms of energy supply but a recognition that offshore wind held enormous opportunity given the scale of what was planned. The Government was now in the somewhat unusual situation of having cross party consensus in the UK on renewables.
Asked by MJ if projects like Thanet proved successful, could the wind farm in effect be ‘replanted’ once it had reached the end of its current life, Mr Dahl confirmed this was possible. While some of the components would have to be replaced, other parts of the turbines and the cabling were capable of another lifetime.
By Peter Barker
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