Vattenfall Wins Rights To Build Largest Nordic Wind Farm, Cheapest Offshore Wind Farm Yet
Swedish power company Vattenfall has announced it has won the rights to build the largest wind farm in the Nordics, the Danish Kriegers Flak, a 600 MW offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea.
Vattenfall made the announcement on Thursday, revealing that it had won the tender to build the 600 MW Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm, one of three offshore wind farms that were promised as part of an agreement by the Danish Parliament to divest from fossil fuels by 2050. Incidentally, Vattenfall has won the rights to develop each of the projects — the 406 MW Horns Rev 3, the 350 MW combined capacity of the Danish Near Shore, and now the 600 MW Kriegers Flak.
The winning tender also represents one of the lowest costs per MW hour in the world for any offshore wind power project, coming in at just €49.9/MWh. Considering that Vattenfall’s bid for the Danish Near Shore project of €60/MWh was the lowest on record at the time it was won back in September, this makes it the cheapest offshore wind project on record.
Further, the project costs are well below the average offshore wind costs put forward by Bloomberg New Energy Finance earlier this month, of $126/MWh — though it is important to note that offshore wind projects in Europe benefit from competitive bidding and years of experience and technological innovation, whereas projects being developed in deeper UK waters are responsible for the higher global average benchmark figure.
“The announcement is an essential milestone for our ambition to increase our production of renewable power,” said Magnus Hall, CEO Vattenfall, of the Kriegers Flak announcement. “We are already the second largest offshore player globally. The winning bid of EUR 49,9 per MWh proves that Vattenfall is highly competitive and brings down the costs for renewable energy.”
Kriegers Flak will be the largest offshore wind farm in Denmark, and in fact in all the Nordic region, and upon completion will generate electricity enough to supply 600,000 Danish households — which is around 23% of all households in Denmark. Vattenfall will invest between €1.1 and €1.3 billion into the project.
“This is exciting news. I’m very proud of our people in the Wind organisation who once again delivered a winning bid,” said Gunnar Groebler, Head of Vattenfall Wind. “Vattenfall has won the three latest offshore wind tenders in Denmark; Horns Rev 3, Danish Near Shore and Kriegers Flak, equivalent to the energy consumption of 55 percent of the Danish households.”
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