One of the UK’s largest offshore wind farms, located 20 kilometres off the coast of Norfolk, has been opened at a ceremony held at Holkham Hall last week. The new £1 billion wind farm is an investment and 50:50 joint venture between two of Norway’s largest companies,Statoil and Statkraft. The wind farm covers an area of approximately 35 square kilometres (13.51 square miles) and comprises 88 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 317MW. It will generate 1.1TWh of green energy every year, enough to power almost 220,000 British homes. Prince Haakon of Norway conducted the official opening ceremony with the Energy Secretary, Ed Davey. The Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Ola Borten Moe also attended along with the Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry, Trond Giske, and Helge Lund of Statoil and Christian Rynning-Tønnesen of Statkraft. Sheringham Shoal is owned equally by Statoil and Statkraft through the joint-venture company Scira Offshore Energy Limited. The opening takes place four years after Scira was granted consent by the UK government, and three years after the initial construction works began. According to Statoil’s president and CEO Helge Lund, the company has drawn on experience acquired from 40 years of offshore oil and gas activities in order to complete the project alongside support from British authorities, local communities and suppliers. “We need to get the economy moving again and a massive expansion in home grown, clean, renewable energy capacity is central to this” said the UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey. “Sheringham Shoal will play an important part, supplying power to 220 000 homes, and providing jobs in the local community. Investment in the UK’s energy mix needs to come from increasingly new and diverse sources, and this project is an excellent example of that.” At least 60 local people are employed full-time to operate and maintain the wind farm which has now helped to push UK operational offshore wind energy capacity to over 2.5GW. Statoil and Statkraft, together with RWE and SSE, are also partners in the Forewind consortium which is working on the Dogger Bank project 120 kilometres off the UK coast, potentially the world’s largest offshore wind development. Source: Renewable Energy Magazine
