New wind farm zones announced

UK Wind Power Zones

Wind power has long been considered a vital part of the UK's renewable energy future and offshore wind turbines have become the new darling of the government's plans.

Today saw the announcement of nine new wind farm zones around the coast of the UK with nine successful license bids being launched. A consortium including Npower and Norway's Statkraft won the licence for the biggest zone, in Dogger Bank, which could produce nine GW of energy, as reported by the BBC.

The agreements have been signed with the Crown Estate which holds ownership over the UK seabed.

When the zones are fully occupied they are forecast to produce almost a quarter of the UK's electricity needs, around 32GW.

The leading consortium, called the Forewind consortium, also consists of the energy companies SSE and RWE npower and Statoil. It will now begin to carry out the surveys, assessments and planning required for the consent process.

Technically feasible projects

"Offshore wind is a strategic pillar for Statoil's new energy business," said Statoil executive vice president Margareth Ovrum. "Our goal is to mature the projects in the Dogger Bank zone up to investment decision, hopefully making profitable and technical feasible projects for the companies."

The Wall Street Journal reports that Norwegian state broadcaster NRK earlier Friday said, citing unnamed sources, that Statoil and state-owned utility Statkraft were among the partners picked to develop a wind farm at Dogger Bank in the UK government's third and biggest round of offshore wind tenders.

When completed it will become one of the largest wind infrastructure projects on the planet, but construction won't begin before 2014.

Substantial new platform for the UK

The second biggest, 7.2GW zone is located in Norfolk Bank and has been won by a consortium of Scottish Power Renewables and Sweden's Vattenfall Vindkraft.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said his government's policies on wind energy have put the country way ahead of other nations.

"This new round of licences provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity," he added.

"The offshore wind industry is at the heart of the UK economy's shift to low carbon and could be worth £75 billion and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020," he said.

Image: BBC.co.uk

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