Energy Companies In Competition for Right to Build Wind Farms off the UK Coast

It now seems that many utility companies are competing for the right to build wind farms off the coast of Britain. These plants would be about 50 times the size of even the biggest present plants. It seems like one prize would be to win the Norfolk field, and this is likely to go to Scottish Power and Vattenfall.

A 5,000 megawatt Norfolk development will be about three times larger than the giant London Array farm under construction in Thames Estuary. It would be crowed the biggest wind farm in Europe, hosting 341 turbines, and it would be up and working in 2012.

However, another utility consortium called Forewind, which includes RWEnpower Renewables, StatoilHydro, Statkraft and Scottish & Southern Energy, is believed to be the front runners for an even bigger 10,000 megawatt Dogger Bank plot in the North Sea.

The awards are due to be made official by the Crown Estate. This is the body that is responsible for licensing offshore wind farms. Reports suggest that Crown Estate will be making the announcement by the end of next month. The first turbines will be entering the water as of 2014.

This is the third most ambitious round of licensing for the UK, and its goal is to create a revolution in Britain’s offshore wind farm industry. This revolution could help the UK reach its climate change targets. However, this is a target that some experts have said is impossible for the UK to reach.

The wind farms will cost billions of pounds to put together. However, they will have substantial subsidies from the Government in the form of green taxes.