The initial investigations suggest that the zone, which will be known as the East Anglia Array, has the potential to generate approximately 7.2GW of renewable energy, which would make a substantial contribution to the UK’s carbon reduction targets to combat climate change.
For the past one year, ScottishPower Renewables and Vattenfall have been carrying out initial assessments of the zone’s potential. According to the companies, the zone is ideally located for access to the supply chain in the UK and Europe, and also has ideal water depths for construction and is situated near to the centres of population with access to national grid connections.
The discussions have already started with the interested parties and the environmental groups and an engagement exercise will be carried out with local communities. The partners are also aiming to work with local businesses and employ local workers where possible and are engaging with regional development agencies to discuss the ways to take this forward.
Ignacio Galan, chairman and CEO of Iberdrola, parent company of ScottishPower Renewables, said: “We are delighted to be working with Vattenfall on what will be one of the world’s largest windfarm developments.
“There is no doubt that delivering the East Anglia Array will be a major engineering challenge but, as the largest developer of onshore wind power in the UK, we have acquired a great deal of expertise in the last 15 years that will help us to achieve such an ambitious project.”
Lars Josefsson, president and CEO of Vattenfall, said: “Making electricity clean is Vattenfall’s promise to its customers and society and offshore wind is a cornerstone of our contribution to a better climate. Vattenfall is therefore delighted to be working with ScottishPower Renewables and we are excited about the prospect of using our wide and varied offshore wind experience gained building schemes across Europe by developing a wind farm off the East Anglia coast.”
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Our island has one of the best wind energy resources in Europe and today’s news shows we’re creating the right conditions for the energy industry to invest in harnessing it. This is one of the strongest signals yet that the UK is locked irreversibly into a low carbon, energy secure prosperous future.”
The partnership has established a joint-venture company, East Anglia Offshore Wind and its team of specialists have now started to assess the engineering challenges of the East Anglia zone and research any potential significant environmental effects.
ScottishPower Renewables and Vattenfall are hoping to submit the first planning application in 2012. If approved, it is anticipated that construction will begin in 2015 and will be carried out in phases.
