News

Monday 24 January 2011

Vattenfall eyes UK offshore wind build after 2015

Swedish utility Vattenfall will start to construct a huge offshore wind farm on an allocated UK North Sea spot after 2015, Chief Executive Oystein Loseth said on Wednesday.

"We have this area in the North Sea where there is a possibility to build up to 7,200 megawatts, it's a huge opportunity. Construction, if we decide to build, will not start before 2015," Loseth said in an interview.

Vattenfall, together with partner Scottish Power, won a tender in January last year to build offshore wind capacity off the East Anglia coast on a spot which is as deep as 13 double decker busses stacked on top of each other.

To meet Vattenfall's ambitions in Britain's wind industry, Loseth said the utility was also planning to open a London office over the coming months to act as a main point of representation in the UK.

"The UK is the market where you have the possibility for growth, especially on the wind side. That's why we are trying to find a place for a new office in London where we can sit all together," he said.

Vattenfall currently has two small offices in London, one in Hexham, Northumberland, and one in Edinburgh.

"This investment is a sign of confidence in our growing economy and our efforts to keep the UK the easiest place to set up and run a business in Europe," said Lord Green, British minister of state for trade and investment.

Britain plans to build 32 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity to help meet ambitious renewable energy targets.

In September Vattenfall opened the world's largest offshore wind farm, the 300-MW Thanet project off the coast of Kent. It plans to start first power output at its 150-MW Ormonde offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea this summer, a spokesman said.

Loseth also said the nuclear industry was an interesting sector for Vattenfall as it already operates reactors in Sweden and Germany. "This is an area of our interest, but we have no concrete plans for the UK," Loseth said.

Vattenfall Germany's Chief Executive Tuomo Hatakka told Reuters on Tuesday the utility was keen to hold on to its German nuclear plant ownerships.

Loseth travelled to London on Wednesday as part of the Swedish delegation to attend the Nordic-Baltic summit hosted by Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron.

Source: Reuters

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