Swedish-owned energy company, Vattenfall, has acquired the rights to build the Thanet offshore wind farm from CRC Energy Jersey 1 for a total of £35m.
The Thanet project, based offshore from Margate, will cost Vattenfall around £780m. On completion, the wind farm will be one of the UK’s largest with an estimated capacity of 300MW.
The deal is expected to strengthen Vattenfall’s presence in the UK and follows the company’s purchase of AMEC Wind Energy and Eclipse Energy earlier this year.
Anders Dahl, head of Vattenfall’s wind power division, said: ‘Great Britain is ideal for wind power with good wind conditions and a long coastline. We are now looking forward to realising the project and having a wind farm in place by 2010.’
The acquisition of the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm Project is part of Vattenfall’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2050, in addition to becoming the fastest growing wind power developer and operator in north Europe.
In a further deal, Vattenfall has joined forces with ScottishPower Renewables, part of the world’s largest wind power operator Iberdrola Renewables, to make a bid in the third round of offshore wind farm development in the UK.
The consortium hopes to establish 6,000MW of installed wind power capacity, corresponding to enough clean energy to power four million homes by 2020. Applications for the third round of tenders are to be submitted to the Crown Estate by the beginning of March.
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