Wind News

Monday 08 February 2010

Work continues at Greater Gabbard, which is expected to be complete in 2012

Scottish and Southern Energy has notified shareholders that over £1.3 billion of renewables projects remain on schedule after "solid progress" this past year.

In an interim management statement, which follows the company's financial report in November 2009, the energy giant claimed it is on course to deliver its financial and operational goals for the period up to March 31 2010.

This includes the 500MW Greater Gabbard project, where 69 of the 140 turbine foundation monopiles have now been installed after an initial delay in commencing foundation work.

Work at the site of Scottish and Southern Energy's (SSE) 350MW Clyde wind farm in southern Scotland is continuing, while pre-construction work is also under way at the £200 million Griffin wind farm site in Perthshire.

Earlier this month, SSE secured partner status for Round 3 of The Crown Estate's offshore wind farm development programme, with a share in two of the zones.

The company had previously bolstered its offshore wind portfolio by acquiring a 25.1% stake from DONG Energy in the 367MW Walney offshore wind farm being developed in the Irish Sea (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story), as well as entering into a joint venture with the Danish company to develop three offshore wind farms with a total capacity of around 1,000MW, in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.

Ian Marchant, chief executive of SSE, said the company's performance in such projects would put it on course for a "moderate" increase in profits for the full year.

"SSE has performed well in the second half of the financial year, with sound performance in our day-to-day operations and solid progress in our major investment projects," he said.

"Our priorities now are to round off this financial year successfully and make a good start to 2010/11."

Greater Gabbard

The Greater Gabbard wind farm off the Suffolk Coast is being developed by a 50:50 joint venture between SSE and RWE npower renewables.

SSE said offshore work was continuing at the site, although it acknowledged that it had received a claim for additional costs relating to foundation monopoles. It expects to resolve this satisfactorily as part of the normal contractual process.

Commissioning of an onshore sub-station is underway and installation of the first turbines is expected to commence in the next few months.

Greater Gabbard is set to have a load factor of over 40% and produce around 1,900GWh of electricity in a typical year, of which SSE will take 50%.

The wind farm is expected to require a total investment by SSE of around £650m, excluding connection to the electricity grid. The development remains on course to be completed in 2012, in time to earn the two Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) the UK government announced would be received by all offshore wind projects accredited between April 2010 and March 2014.

Wind

Following the resolution of most of the radar-related issues associated with the consent granted for the £500 million Clyde wind farm, SSE said that work at the site continues. The first phase of the development should be completed in 2011 and the second phase in 2012.

The company added that pre-construction work is ongoing at the Griffin wind farm site in Perthshire, in which it now has a 100% stake after purchasing the remaining 12% from independent developer Greenpower at the end of last year.

SSE said the tendering process for turbines was expected to be completed shortly and the capacity of the wind farm will be determined as part of that, although the annual output is estimated to be between 350GWh and 400GWh.

Glendoe

Meanwhile, SSE said it was close to completing an agreement with the contractor charged with clearing the debris from a rockfall at Glendoe hydro electric scheme.

In August, the unexplained collapse partially blocked the tunnel that connects the reservoir to the power station (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story).

However, SSE said it remains unlikely that any electricity will be generated at Glendoe until the financial year 2011/12.