The proposed 258 MW extension to the Burbo Bank offshore wind farm that was recently put forward by developer DONG Energy has been given the go ahead by authorities, according to recent reports.
Once completed, that will increase the total capacity of the offshore wind farm located in Liverpool Bay up to 348 MW.
DONG Energy had previously confirmed with reporters that it was aiming to deploy 32 of Vestas’ newest 8 MW offshore wind turbines during the expansion — as a means of testing out the technology before wider use.
The project was also recently one of only eight offshore wind farms in the region to secure a Final Investment Decision enabling contract from the government — thereby locking the project into approval for subsidies as part of the UK’s new electricity market reforms.
The DONG Energy UK chairman, Brent Cheshire, recently noted about the expansion: “With a generating capacity of up to 250 megawatts, (it) has the potential to power more than 170,000 homes.”
Commenting on the approval, the head of offshore wind at The Crown Estate, Huub den Rooijen, stated: “The Burbo Bank offshore wind farm benefits from shallow waters and good wind yield and today’s consent announcement for an extension represents a solid opportunity to capitalize on the existing wind farm’s success.”
On a related note, the Scottish government has reportedly now given planning consent to the 15-turbine Middle Muir wind farm to be built in South Lanarkshire. When completed, the project will have a total generating capacity of around 60 MW.
Attending WindEnergy Hamburg 2014 last week, CleanTechnica director Zachary Shahan caught wind of some interesting offshore wind energy statements, which included that offshore wind energy costs are projected to drop 30–40% within the coming 10 years and that the UK will remain the world’s #1 offshore wind energy market but Germany will rise to #2. Yesterday, CleanTechnica senior reporter Tina Casey followed up on the wind cost reduction claim with discussion of a new report out by DNV GL, which agrees that a 40% reduction is possible.
Image Credit: Burbo Bank wind farm by Steve Fareham (Wiki CC)
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