Who would have thought that the British offshore would supply so much of the UK’s energy needs. In the 70’s the country tapped the North Sea’s formidable oil and gas reserves, pressed by the squeeze brought on by the Middle East oil and gas embargo. That was then. Today, the Gordon Brown government launched a new, greener phase of the country’s offshore development, as it announced an ambitious £75 billion ($119 billion) project to build thousands of offshore wind turbines. The development is part of the country’s ambitious Round 3 of bids for leasing of portions of the British sea bed.
Ed Miliband (number two in our December Top Ten Players in Green Energy), UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change said:
Today’s news shows we’re creating the right conditions for the energy industry to invest in harnessing it.
The plan, if fully developed, will play a crucial part in helping the UK meet 15 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020. Round 3 is administered by the Crown Estate, an independent body that owns most of the country’s seabed.
Monday we reported that the nine projects were expected to cost a combined £100 billion. Today’s announcement sheds some £25 billion on the project’s price tag. We’ve got calls out to the Crown Estate in London to hammer out the estimated price of this massive undertaking.
The Guardian writes that the nine announced projects will be further away from the coast and in deeper waters than any existing offshore project. Across Britain’s offshore there are already 700 megawatts of installed offshore turbines and another 1.2 gigawatts under construction and 3.5 gigawatts in planning stages.
The nine wining consortiums slated to develop these projects are:
1. Moray Firth Zone, Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd which is 75% owned by EDP Renovaveis and 25% owned by SeaEnergy Renewables – 1.3 GW
2. Firth of Forth Zone, SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd equally owned by SSE Renewables and Fluor – 3.5 GW
3. Dogger Bank Zone, the Forewind Consortium equally owned by each of SSE Renewables, RWE Npower Renewables, Statoil and Statkraft – 9 GW
4. Hornsea Zone, Siemens Project Ventures and Mainstream Renewable Power, a consortium equally owned by Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Project Ventures and involving Hochtief Construction – 4 GW
5. Norfolk Bank Zone, East Anglia Offshore Wind Ltd equally owned by Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft – 7.2 GW
6. Hastings Zone, Eon Climate and Renewables UK – 0.6 GW
7. West of Isle of Wight Zone, Eneco New Energy – 0.9 GW
8. Bristol Channel Zone, RWE Npower Renewables, the UK subsidiary of RWE Innogy – 1.5 GW
9. Irish Sea Zone, Centrica Renewable Energy and involving RES Group – 4.2 GW
So will all of these projects end up being constructed? The development faces some significant hurdles. It will take some convincing for project finance bank to step in and fund these power plants. Although the British Government’s strong support might convince them to open their purse. Also, as we wrote here last summer, the UK lacks the cleantech supply chain to support such massive undertaking.
Photo Credit: The Guardian; The Crown Estate