Airtricity, the Dublin-based renewable energy specialist, is preparing an audacious plan to build the world’s biggest wind farm in the North Sea at a cost of about £1.2 billion. The Irish group is putting together a consortium of energy and construction partners to raise finance to develop the wind farm, which would be located in British waters. It aims to present its plans to the government later this year. Airtricity, which is backed by NTR, the largest multi-utility group in Ireland, has drawn up plans for a wind farm of about 5,000 turbines producing more than 10,000MW of electricity. Airtricity’s partners are likely to include a national grid operator, such as National Grid Transco, ScottishPower or Scottish & Southern Energy. One of the most expensive parts of the project would be the cost of linking the farm to the grid. The consortium will also include a power generation company, such as Centrica, Npower or Powergen, which would probably sign an agreement to buy the green energy produced by the turbines. The turbines would be spread over almost 50 square kilometres and create enough energy to power 441,000 homes.

Following the completion of the Scroby Sands wind farm installation works, Oceanteam 2000 Ltd has been awarded the underwater and marine support services contract by Global Marine Systems Ltd for the Kentish Flats wind farm project. This includes the onshore beach works, main product line installation and inter-field submarine cables.

The financial close for a portfolio of 111.35MW of wind farms in Greece was signed in December 2004 between Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank (HVB) from Germany, Emporiki Bank from Greece and the Greek construction company Ktistor, a wind farm developer in Greece. The portfolio consists of four wind farms: two already under construction and two more scheduled for construction in 2005/06. Among other services, Lahmeyer International applied the numeric flow model KLIMM for wind studies in the mountainous terrain, carried out the technical due diligence and is monitoring the construction on behalf of the lenders. Vestas was appointed to supply 34 V90-3 MW and 11 V52-850 kW turbines. The civil and electrical works in the very complex terrain are being constructed by Ktistor Construction company and include three 150/20kV substations. The highlight of one relatively small wind farm is the average wind speed of more than 10m/s at hub height.

LM Glasfiber and GE Energy have signed a contract for the delivery of blades for the eight projects totalling 990MW that GE Energy plans to build in Quebec, Canada, from 2006 to 2012. In addition, the parties have agreed on the supply of blades for a further 1,400MW of capacity for the North American market over the next ten years. As a result of the agreement, LM Glasfiber has decided to build a blade factory in Gaspé in Quebec. The factory will have an annual production capacity of approximately 240MW and will employ between 100 and 120 people. The factory is expected to be operational in January 2006. Combined with the US facility in North Dakota, the new factory will give LM Glasfiber an annual blade production capacity of more than 900MW in North America.

In a major leap forward for British wind power, offshore wind specialist A2SEA has been selected as the turbine installation contractor for the Kentish Flats wind farm. The company was selected for this contract by the main contractor NEG-Micon UK Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Vestas Northern Europe A/S. The wind farm will consist of 30 Vestas V90/3.0MW turbines, and will be the largest offshore wind farm in the UK. The work will comprise all sea transport, installation and mechanical completion of the largest turbines so far in Britain, and is due to begin around May 2005. The award of the Kentish Flats contract confirms A2SEA’s commitment to the UK offshore wind industry and follows the opening of the company’s own offices in Derby earlier this year.

In a further decisive step towards the upcoming market requirements for installation and service of offshore wind turbines, A2SEA take full ownership in M/V Ocean Ady and M/V Ocean Hanne at the end of February 2005. Until now, Ady and Hanne have been contracted by A2SEA on a long-term charter agreement with ORION – PEP Shipping. Ocean Ady and Ocean Hanne will be renamed as Sea Energy and Sea Power. Both vessels were converted by A2SEA into offshore installation vessels in 2001–2002 and have been operating in the offshore wind industry. At the end of March, Sea Energy will be docked for additional conversion. Sea Energy’s jacking legs will be extended from their current 17m to 28.5m, which will enable operations to be performed at water depths of up to 25m – depending on seabed penetration. For further projects in 2006–2008 it is also planned to upgrade the crane capacity for the larger and heavier turbines.

M/V Sea Power is expected to have her main business within the service segment as an external crane vessel for exchange of main components on offshore wind turbines. M/V Sea Power and Sea Energy will have their home port in Esbjerg, Denmark, which has a short connecting distance to offshore wind farms of northern Europe.