Oct 29 2010
Forewind, a development consortium, inclusive of RWE Innogy, the Norwegian energy utilities Statoil and Statkraft, and Scottish and Southern Energy (SEE), has proclaimed that the first stage of the Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Farm, the biggest of its kind has begun. The Dogger Bank with a huge area is a sandbank around 200 km away from England’s east coast. The initial power capacity is expected to be 9000 MW by 2020, and a later expansion to 13000 MW is also in the works.
The whole project has been divided into four stages, where each stage would further have three developmental phases. Currently the specific location in the sandbank’s southern section has been announced. The location would be some 125-180 Kms off the Yorkshire coast, covering 2000 Km. The water depth here would be 30 meters, and in this space the installation of the wind turbines generating 1400 MW is to be carried out.
Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Farm
According to Prof. Martin Skiba, RWE Innogy’s Head of Offshore Wind, the Offshore Wind Industry’s vision would be accomplished little by little, with the successful development of this project and future projects.
Around 10% of UK’s electric power requirements are to be fulfilled by the Dogger Bank Wind Power Station in the upcoming periods. After the identification of the first stage, the next is the developmental work in the form of environmental studies. Research would be concentrated on the structure of the seabed, the area’s plant and animal life and bird migration routes.
Along with the installation of wind turbines, substations on land and sea are also to be constructed, outfitting them with high-voltage cables transmitting electric power from the sea to the land for the consumer. A grid connection point is being set up at Cottingham’s substation in Yorkshire, to aid the first stage construction phase. This location is in a strategic point between continental Europe, Norway and UK, and hence has been singled out by the EWEA (European Wind Energy Association), to be the central grid node in the Association’s future plans, for the development of an inter-European electric power grid facility. In the future, wind power fluctuations would be counter-balanced by Norwegian hydropower plants’ storable energy, and then be transported as base load to the European consumers.