03 Nov Wind farm ticks all boxes, way offshore in shallow water

The Government recently gave the go ahead, following a bidding process, for the Dogger Bank Teesside A and B wind field which will include some 400 turbines, with upstream cabling coming onshore near Redcar to connect with the National Grid. The winning consortium Forewind [RWE, SSE, Statkraft and Statoil] state that once fully operational, it would power up to two million homes.

In February, it was granted planning consent for Dogger Bank Creyke Beck, a scheme off the Yorkshire coast which together the Dogger bank field will form one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world. [Source BBC]

This begs the question how much offshore wind power could currently be economically constructed in UK waters, the answer will be a factor of economics and logistics. It’s positive then that the UK is also largely surrounded by shallow waters, for instance the Forewind consortium field at Dogger Bank is in water mostly less than 30m deep and 100 km offshore therefore construable and maintainable with economic proven designs.

The commercial viability of offshore wind power compared to onshore wind farms is in part a result of opinion that onshore wind power is too intrusive in a UK relatively densely populated as well as the fact that winds offshore are stronger and more constant.

Fact: The UK leads the world in?offshore wind power with a total installed capacity of more than 5,000mw. The Thames Estuary Field is currently the world’s largest offshore wind farm with a capacity of 630mw, the equivalent of a mid-sized gas-fired power station.