Banking on offshore

Birds, radars, landowners, fishermen – just some of the stakeholders in Hydro’s North Sea wind farm.

When the government announced its approval of 15 offshore wind farms back in December 2003, it was greeted with all the fanfare due such a bold move. Once installed, these turbines alone could power one in six houses.

Fast forward to the present day and none of these 15 are up and running. Why?

In the case of the 315MW Norfolk Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm, a significant amount of the effort so far has focused on gaining consent, including the production of comprehensive onshore and offshore environmental impact assessments covering everything from bird life and marine ecology to landscape and vegetation. It has been no small task for Norway’s Hydro which, along with Dutch company Evelop, jointly owns Scira Offshore Energy [see GF60, 'Breezy new horizon'], a specific project company formed to develop the wind farm.

Project director Bjorn Drangsholt hopes they will begin building next year, ready for operation in 2010, but explains that there’s a litany of issues to be straightened out.

For a start, the Ministry of Defence has two nearby military bases with radars, which could pick up the turbines. The technical solution seems simple enough – a piece of software which ‘infills’ the image created by turbines, so keeping them off the readings. But the question of who’s going to pay for it is still up in the air. “Eighteen months ago the MOD said that it was all OK. And then it came down to money and the offshore developers were expected to pay,” says a frustrated Gordon Edge of the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA).

He’s been running a working group on this national issue since 2002, and says the industry is crying out for more assistance from the government – particularly from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), which has taken the place of the DTI.

A clearer lead from above would also put Drangsholt’s mind at rest over a small but significant clause in the paperwork from the Crown Estate, owners of the seabed. This states that if oil and gas is found, it can be granted development. “We would have to go away with no compensation,” he says. “The BERR has to make up its mind if it wants this land for wind power or oil and gas.”

Also on the cards is compensation to the local fishing industry – which will not be allowed to work within 50 metres of the 100 or so towers – and to landowners forpermitting installation of the underground cable that will bring the precious electricity ashore on their turf.

As frustrating as these issues appear, Drangsholt concedes that they’re all part of the process. BWEA’s Gordon Edge agrees that they’re inevitable growing pains for a young industry. The trade body is helping companies address just these sorts of challenges. It has established a framework for negotiating with fishing businesses to ensure compensation goes only to firms who do actually fish in the area (rather than to all those who hold a license to do so). It is also campaigning for modifications to the ownership of grid connections so that wind farm developers can share the cost with others in the electricity industry.

But Edge is of the opinion that the UK’s tough consent system means the wind farms being built today are of a very high quality.With more wind farm capacity currently under construction (500MW, which equals the total capacity built over the last five years) the UK is set to become the world’s biggest offshore wind generator by the end of next year.

The result, a few years down the line, will be unique expertise in working offshore – an invaluable skills set to offer the many other countries expected to build wind farms at sea soon. “We’re blazing a trail here,” says Edge. “The lessons learned here will be copied all over the world.” – Neil Wilks

Hydro is a Forum for the Future partner.

10 October 2007

Neil Wilks