RWE has announced plans to scale back the size of a major proposed offshore wind farm after carrying out a review of the project.
The German energy firm had originally planned to construct the Triton Knoll wind farm with a capacity of 1200 MW, but has reduced it to between 600 and 900 MW.
The move will improve the economics of the project as well as reduce the onshore footprint of the proposed facility, RWE said in a statement.
RWE’s revised plans for Triton Knoll – located in the North Sea of the east coast of England – follows its announcement in November 2013 that it would cancel the 1200 MW, £4 billion Atlantic Array offshore wind farm. In December ScottishPower said that it had cancelled plans for the 1800 MW Argyll Array offshore wind farm.
RWE says that the new plans for Triton Knoll would ensure that the "efficiency and utilisation of the site is maximised". It has carried out a review of the project and says that it has minimised the cost of energy from the project.
"The recent optimisation work is part of a project review to make the site more competitive and more economic in line with government proposals to bring down the cost of offshore wind," said project manager Jacob Hain.
The new design for the project reduces the footprint of the onshore substation by more than 50 per cent.
RWE said last year that it would not proceed with the construction of the Atlantic Array offshore wind farm because the project’s technical challenges made it prohibitive in current market conditions. ScottishPower said that the Argyll Array project was not financially viable in the short term.
The cancellations have caused concern about the investment environment in the UK’s offshore wind sector and the UK’s energy policy. The current system of fiscal support for renewable energy – the Renewables Obligation – is due to be replaced by a new system of contracts for difference (CfD) in which renewable energy generators are guaranteed a minimum price for the energy they generate.
Sian Crampsie
