Vattenfall has announced it will invest £300 million in the construction of Scotland’s largest offshore wind test and demonstration facility.
The Swedish firm has given the green light to fully fund the innovative 92.4 MW, 11 turbine project, which is also known as the Aberdeen offshore wind farm.
Located in Aberdeen Bay, the project has been the target of objections from the Trump Organisation, which has built a new golf course on the Aberdeenshire coast.
Vattenfall will acquire the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group’s 25 % share for an undisclosed sum and become the 100 % owner of Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm Limited (AOWFL), the company behind the European EOWDC.
AOWFL earlier announced that it had selected MHI Vestas Offshore Wind to supply the wind turbines for the project, which will test and demonstrate cutting-edge offshore wind technology and will play a key role in industry efforts to cut the costs of offshore wind energy.
“Vattenfall’s green light for the EOWDC underlines our long term ambition to grow our wind power capacity, including in the UK,” said Gunnar Groebler, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Area Wind at Vattenfall. “The UK government believes that wind power should continue to provide an essential part of the UK’s low carbon electricity generation mix and so we remain committed to expanding our UK operations.
“In particular, we are confident that the new UK and Scottish governments will continue to support growth in offshore wind as the industry lowers the cost of energy significantly.”
EOWDC is due to start operating in 2018, after prepatory offshore works started off Aberdeen Bay earlier this year. Boskalis has been named the preferred offshore balance of plant (BoP) contractor for the construction and installation (EPCI) of the offshore infrastructure including the foundations and cabling, while engineering and infrastructure specialist Murphy & Sons has been named as preferred bidder to provide the onshore substation and associated cabling work.
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