A major offshore wind farm development rights has been awarded to Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables in North Sea, off the east coast of England. The zone was assessed by both the companies for a period of 12 months for its potential and following that, the companies were awarded the development rights as part of The Crown Estate’s Round 3 offshore wind farm programme.
As per the initial estimate, East Anglia Array is capable of generating about 7.200MW of power, which is enough to supply power to more than four million houses per annum. The award is consistent with Vattenfall’s aspiration to generate more clean power from renewable sources and to make significant contribution to meet UK’s renewable energy targets as well as to fight climate change.
A joint-venture company, East Anglia Offshore Wind Ltd, has been established by the partners and experts from the company have started initial assessment of the potential impact on the environment. The experts have also started to examine the engineering challenges of the East Anglia zone. Local businesses and local workers will be utilized by the partners for the project as far as possible.
Ignacio Galán, Chairman of Iberdrola Renovables, parent company of ScottishPower Renewables said that the company is pleased to be collaborating with Vattenfall on the offshore wind farm development, which could be potentially one of the largest wind farms in the world. Having experience in onshore wind power development for the past 15 years, the company was confident of completing this mega offshore project, Ignacio Galán added.
The first planning application is proposed to be submitted in the year 2012 by Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables and if approved the construction of the project will start in 2015 and would be completed in phases.