RWE npower renewables has been announced as development partner to take forward around 4,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy projects in the UK. Click here to view a video of Paul Coffey speaking on this.

On 4 June 2008 The Crown Estate launched its Round 3 leasing programme for the delivery of up to 25 GW (gigawatts) of new generation capacity from offshore wind by 2020.

In March 2009 RWE npower renewables submitted a bid to The Crown Estate under this third licensing round for UK offshore wind farms. 

The Crown Estate has now announced that the RWE bid was successful and that RWE npower renewables has been awarded the development rights for Bristol Channel Zone (Round 3 Zone 8) which is located in the outer Bristol Channel.

To see the location of the Bristol Channel Zone please refer to the location map by clicking the link on the right hand side of this page. The location map shows Bristol Channel Zone boundary in black and the site of the proposed Atlantic Array wind farm outlined in red. 

Following the award of the Zone RWE npower renewables is proposing to develop a 1,500 megawatt wind farm, with the name Atlantic Array within the The Bristol Channel Zone.

As it is early in the development process the megawatt size of the turbines to be used is undecided, however it is expected the proposed Atlantic Array project would consist of some 250 turbines.  The proposed project already benefits from having a connection agreement with National Grid, which will enable first power to be exported from the project in late 2015. 

The annual generation expected at the site would be equivalent to the approximate domestic needs of  around 1.1 million average UK households¹.  This is equivalent to over 40% of the domestic electricity consumption for the South West of England and over 90% of the domestic electricity consumption for Wales².
 

The site extends over approximately 492 km² in water depths of 23 to 56 metres.  At the closest point to shore it would be around 14 kilometres from the North Devon coast and 16 kilometres from the South Wales coast.

Alastair Gill, Head of Offshore Development UK said, “We are delighted to have been awarded this strategically important zone.  We will now focus our energies towards carrying out the extensive surveys and assessments required for the consent process and will be working in consultation with Government agencies, environmental groups and coastal communities.  We are confident that the experience gained in developing, owning and operating our extensive portfolio of Round 1 and Round 2 projects will prove invaluable and help us to deliver this project in the Bristol Channel.

RWE npower renewables is an experienced offshore wind farm developer. In 2004 we built North Hoyle Offshore Wind Farm which was UK’s first major offshore wind farm and this year we also completed Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm, also off the coast of North Wales. We also have  50% of the equity in Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm (in partnership with Scottish and Southern Energy) which is under construction and we have consent to construct Gwynt y Mor Offshore Wind Farm.

Background
In September 2008, RWE npower renewables, the UK division of European renewable energy company RWE Innogy, purchased Channel Energy Limited from North Devon-based specialist wind power development company Farm Energy.
The acquisition of Channel Energy supported RWE npower renewables’ aim of developing an offshore wind farm under the The Crown Estate’s third leasing round for offshore wind farms.

Channel Energy holds an agreement to connect the 1,500MW Atlantic Array project to the National Grid.

Under the terms of the sale Farm Energy personnel are continuing to develop the project under a management services agreement.  A new company, Zero Carbon Marine Limited, has been incorporated to provide these management services.

Notes

¹ Energy predicted to be generated by the proposal is derived using long term wind speeds calculated by meteorological models seeded with historical weather data obtained from satellite, surface-based and airborne measurement systems.  This enables a calculation to be made to estimate the average annual energy production for the site based on 250 turbines each of rated capacity 6.15 MW. The energy capture predicted and hence derived homes equivalent or emissions savings figures may change as further data are gathered."
 
Equivalent homes supplied is based on an annual electricity consumption per home of 4700 kWh. This figure is supported by recent domestic electricity consumption data available from The Digest of UK Energy Statistics and household estimates and projections from the UK Statistics Authority.

²Regional and local electricity consumption statistics sourced from The Department of Energy and Climate Change Energy Trends December 2008.