Vattenfall Plans 34 Turbine Extension To 300 Megawatt Thanet Offshore Wind Farm

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Swedish power company Vattenfall has announced plans to investigate the possibility of expanding the 300 megawatt Thanet Offshore Wind Farm.

Vattenfall, which is emerging as a fierce competitor in the wind industry, revealed on its website plans to revive an expansion to the 300 MW Thanet Offshore Wind Farm, which is located 12 kilometers off Foreness Point, east of Kent in England. Vattenfall acquired the larger 300 MW Thanet project back in 2008 when it purchased the project from Warwick Energy & Partners. In 2010, as part of the UK Crown Estate’s Round 2.5 process, Vattenfall obtained permission for a proposed 147 MW extension but chose to put these plans aside due to onshore grid constraints.

However, announced on January 6, Vattenfall has revealed early plans to extend the Thanet wind farm to include up to 34 new wind turbines — which, theoretically, could benefit from some of the new and larger turbines measuring between 8 MW to even 10 MW by the time the project secures final consent, expected to be in mid-2019.

Vattenfall has planned five public information days in the Thanet area to investigate the opinions of locals.

“Vattenfall’s Kent Cluster of offshore wind power has made an important contribution to the Thanet and Kent economy and community,” said Helen Jameson, the Project Director for the Thanet Extension Offshore Wind Farm. “We think there is an opportunity to add more green energy capacity to the existing Thanet Offshore Wind Farm to deliver cheap, green, economy boosting electricity.

“We are at the early stages but it’s important we understand local people’s concerns and hopes for the extension. Please come along to one of our drop in sessions and ask the specialists on hand about our early plans.”

The seas offshore from Kent are now home to over 1 gigawatt of offshore wind capacity, including the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm, the 90 MW Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm its 49.5 MW extension, and the nearby 635 MW London Array owned by E.on and partners. Vattenfall currently has 70 employees supporting the operations of Thanet, Kentish Flats and the Kentish Flats Extension.

Vattenfall, which was in the news regularly throughout 2016 for new projects and industry developments, is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2050 — not bad for a power company which generated 173 TWh of electricity from hydro, nuclear (42 TWh), fossil fuels (84 TWh), wind, and biomass sources in 2015.

Vattenfall has also requested an opinion from the UK Government regarding the scope of the environmental impact assessment for an expansion at Thanet. The five meetings for locals in the Kent area are as follows:

Location
‌	6 Westcliff Mansions, Ramsgate, Kent, CT11 9HY	‌
‌	Harbour Street, Broadstairs, Kent, CT10 1EU	‌
‌	Fifth Avenue, Cliftonville, Margate, Kent, CT9 2JJ	‌
‌	The Guildhall, Cattle Market, Sandwich, Kent, CT13 9AH	‌
‌	Foads Lane, Cliffsend, Kent, CT12 5JH	‌