Paul Dowling, CEO of Airtricity, SSE’s renewable energy development division, said: "We have a strong track record in wind farm development throughout Europe and this will add to our development pipeline in Sweden. The region enjoys a strong wind resource and we are looking forward to working with our joint venture partners to develop the site."
Acquisition of wind farm development site
Scottish and Southern Energy plc (“SSE”), through its renewable energy development division, Airtricity, has entered into an agreement to acquire the Slieve Divena Phase II wind farm project in Country Tyrone, Northern Ireland, from RES UK & Ireland Ltd.
Slieve Divena Phase II was granted planning consent in 2007 and will be an eight turbine, 20MW (megawatt) extension to SSE’s existing 30MW Slieve Divena wind farm. SSE has over 600MW of onshore wind farm capacity in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in operation, in construction or with consent for development.
Ian Marchant, Chief Executive of SSE, said:
“I am very pleased that we have been able to add the Slieve Divena Phase II project to our growing wind energy portfolio. It is another step towards our target of 4,000 MW of operating renewable energy capacity in the UK and Ireland by 2013 and another illustration of the opportunities flowing from our acquisition last year of Airtricity.”
Formation of new Round 3 offshore wind consortium
Scottish and Southern Energy plc (“SSE”), through its renewable energy development division Airtricity, has joined forces with Fluor Limited, the UK operating arm of Fluor Corporation, to create a new consortium to bid for the exclusive rights to develop wind farms under The Crown Estate’s Round 3 Offshore Wind Farm Development Programme (Round 3).
The consortium, called Seagreen Wind Energy Limited, combines the extensive renewables development, asset management and operations experience of one of the UK’s leading energy companies, with the offshore project delivery expertise of one of the world’s largest publicly owned engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services companies.
Airtricity and Fluor jointly developed the 500 MW Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm located off the coast of Suffolk, which is currently the world’s largest offshore wind farm under construction and is on schedule for completion in 2011. Airtricity and Fluor have also received an exclusive development agreement from The Crown Estate for the Bell Rock offshore wind farm located within Scottish Territorial Waters.
Consent obtained to develop second Dutch offshore wind farm
Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), through its renewables development division, Airtricity, has obtained consent from the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management for construction of the offshore wind farm ‘Breeveertien II’, located in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. This follows the consent to develop the ‘West Rijn’ wind farm obtained on 15 January 2009.
‘Breeveertien II’ is the largest consented wind farm in the Netherlands and, once constructed, will make a major contribution to the Dutch national target of 6,000MW of offshore wind capacity by 2020. It will consist of up to 97 wind turbines with a total potential energy capacity of around 350MW (megawatts). It is located in the North Sea, 60 kilometres off the coast of Ijmuiden. The focus will now be on the final phase of the development process, securing financial support from the Dutch government through its renewables support mechanism (‘SDE’).
SSE was recently granted exclusive rights by The Crown Estate to develop offshore wind farms at four locations in Scottish territorial waters. The locations are: Beatrice, Bell Rock, Islay and Kintyre. It is also seeking to play a significant role in The Crown Estate’s plans for a third round of offshore wind farm developments in zones off the coast of the UK.
SSE has already started construction work related to the development in the outer Thames Estuary of Greater Gabbard, a joint venture with RWE Innogy which, on completion, is expected to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm with a capacity of 500MW. It also has consent to develop offshore wind farms at Arklow (Republic of Ireland) and Butendiek (Germany) and continues to pursue other options for offshore wind farm development in northern Europe.
Paul Dowling, Chief Executive of Airtricity said: “This is a major achievement for SSE and takes the total offshore wind farm capacity consented to us by the Dutch government to over 600MW. The Dutch market is an important new area for SSE’s renewable development team and the ‘West Rijn’ and ‘Breeveertien II’ sites will give us the potential to become the leading offshore wind developer in The Netherlands.”
Offshore Windfarm Development in Scottish Territorial Waters
Scottish and Southern Energy plc (“SSE”), through its renewable energy development division Airtricity, has been granted exclusivity by The Crown Estate to develop offshore wind farms at four locations in Scottish territorial waters. The locations are Beatrice, Bell Rock, Islay and Kintyre.
The proposed wind farms could have a total capacity of up to 2,700MW. Their development is subject to site-specific consultations and environmental impact assessments, statutory consents and the satisfactory completion of the Strategic Environmental Assessment for offshore wind announced by the Scottish government in October 2008. At two of the four sites, SSE is in partnership with other specialist developers.
SSE is also seeking to play a significant role in The Crown Estate’s plans for a third round of offshore wind farm developments in zones off the coast of the UK.
SSE has already started construction work related to the development in the outer Thames Estuary of Greater Gabbard, a joint venture with RWE Innogy which, on completion, is expected to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm with a capacity of 500MW. It also has consent to develop offshore wind farms at Arklow (Republic of Ireland), Butendiek (Germany) and West Rijn (Netherlands) with a total capacity of over 1,000MW and continues to pursue other options for offshore wind farm development in northern Europe.
Ian Marchant, Chief Executive of SSE, said:“One of the key aims of our acquisition of Airtricity a year ago was to build up a major offshore wind farm capability in northern Europe, and this is already being achieved in the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.
Paul Dowling, Chief Executive of Airtricity, said:“Offshore wind represents an outstanding resource which, when harnessed, will make a very significant contribution to meeting the ambitious renewable energy goals for 2020 agreed by the EU last year.
“I believe that EU leaders are determined that the huge opportunities in offshore wind should not be missed and that Greater Gabbard, which we expect to complete in 2011, will prove to be the first of a series of major offshore wind farms to be developed by SSE over the next decade.”
Scottish and Southern Energy submits amended design for Pairc wind farm
Scottish and Southern Energy (“SSE”) has submitted to Scottish Ministers a revised proposal for a 94MW wind farm at Pairc on the Isle of Lewis.
This amendment follows advice from Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and statutory consultees to reduce the size of the proposal from the original 57 turbine, 205 Megawatt (MW) scheme applied for in June 2007, to a 26 turbine, 94MW scheme.
SSE’s Development Manager, Chris Marden, said: “I believe that the amended proposal demonstrates that we have carefully considered the response to our original application, and we are hopeful that it will meet the requirements of the Council, statutory consultees and expectations of the community. There is now another opportunity for people to review the application and submit their views to the Scottish Government.”
Scottish and Southern Energy has submitted further information to Scottish Ministers in the form of an addendum to the Environmental Statement. This addendum contains additional survey information including background noise surveys, further bird surveys and geotechnical testing of peat in support of the revised proposal.
Copies of the addendum together with the Environmental Statement and associated application are available at the following locations:
* Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Sandwick Road, Stornoway, HS1 2BW
* Stornoway Library, 19 Cromwell Street, Stornoway, HS1 2DA
* Ravenspoint Centre, Cearsiadair, South Lochs, Isle of Lewis
* Post Office, Lacasaidh, Lochs, Isle of Lewis
Wind power in Sweden
Sweden consumes about 150 terawatt hours of electricity per year, of which about 1 TWh is generated from domestic wind power resources. Several times as much is imported from Denmark, which generates a considerable amount of surplus wind power. Two large projects are under development, which could dramatically increase wind power in Sweden.
Swedish package and paper products company Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget and Norwegian power company Statkraft will invest 16 billion kronor (€1.73 billion; US$2.4 billion) in a project which will consist of around 400 wind turbines in seven wind farms in Jämtland and Västernorrland counties. Statkraft will provide financing and SCA the land.
"… the wind power venture would involve production of 2,800 gigawatt hours, or GWh, of wind power electricity a year, accounting for between two to three percent of Sweden’s electricity production."
The Markbygden Wind Farm will be a series of wind farms in Norrbotten County. The project will be built by 2020, and will have a capacity of up to 4 GW. If built out, the 55 billion kronor (€5.1 billion, US$6.9 billion) project will be the largest wind farm in Europe.[3] The wind farm will cover some 450 square kilometres, comprising about 1,100 wind turbines, and is expected to produce up to 12 TW·h of electricity per year (i.e. an average power of up to 1.4 GW).
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