The move is a result of the British government’s increase in funding towards sustainable energy, which the British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling announced.
Combined, the wind farms will have a total capacity of 367 megawatt and consist of 102 turbines. The planned completion date for Walney I is at the beginning of 2011. Walney II is expected to be completed in 2012. The total volume of power produced will be the equivalent of the annual consumption of about 250,000 households.
“It’s encouraging that the investment regime has now been created to allow us to implement our strategy of considerably expanding DONG Energy’s position within sustainable energy. With the 2 ROCs, we can now begin the construction of Walney I and II.” says Anders Eldrup, chief executive officer of DONG Energy.
As for the London Array project, the partners will now conclude their review processes before making an announcement on the final investment decision.
With 2 ROCs, DONG Energy finds that a good foundation has been created to go along with the London Array project as well. We will now discuss this with our partners, says Anders Eldrup.
The turbines that are to be used in the Walney projects are part of a supply contract concluded between DONG Energy and Siemens Wind Power in March 2009.
The agreement concerns the supply of up to 500 turbines for DONG Energy’s planned offshore wind farm projects; Walney will use up the first 102 of the turbines detailed in the contract.
