Greenjobs Blog

The recent announcement by The Crown Estate of the successful bidders for each of the nine zones in Round 3 of its offshore wind licensing programme could see a major boost for greenjobs in the United Kingdom. The round 3 wind sites have a total wind energy generation capacity of 32GW and they are expected to deliver a quarter of the UK’s electricity needs by 2020. It is envisaged that it will cost £75 billion to construct up to 6,400 new wind turbines as part of this renewable energy programme.

The developers who have signed exclusivity zone agreements are as follows:

1. Moray Firth Zone, Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd which is 75% owned by EDP Renovaveis and 25% owned by SeaEnergy Renewables – 1.3 GW

2. Firth of Forth Zone, SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd equally owned by SSE Renewables and Fluor – 3.5 GW

3. Dogger Bank Zone, the Forewind Consortium equally owned by each of SSE Renewables, RWE Npower Renewables, Statoil and Statkraft – 9 GW

4. Hornsea Zone, Siemens Project Ventures and Mainstream Renewable Power, a consortium equally owned by Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Project Ventures and involving Hochtief Construction – 4 GW

5. Norfolk Bank Zone, East Anglia Offshore Wind Ltd equally owned by Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft – 7.2 GW

6. Hastings Zone, Eon Climate and Renewables UK – 0.6 GW

7. West of Isle of Wight Zone, Eneco New Energy – 0.9 GW

8. Bristol Channel Zone, RWE Npower Renewables, the UK subsidiary of RWE Innogy – 1.5 GW

9. Irish Sea Zone, Centrica Renewable Energy and involving RES Group – 4.2 GW

Commenting on the announcement, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “Our policies in support of offshore wind energy have already put us ahead of every other country in the world. This new round of licences provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity”.

“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. This announcement will make a significant and practical contribution to reducing our CO2 emissions and the Government will work with developers and The Crown Estate to support the growing offshore wind industry and help remove barriers to rapid development.”

The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, added: “Our Island has one of the best wind energy resources in Europe and today’s news shows we’re creating the right conditions for the energy industry to invest in harnessing it. This is one of the strongest signals yet that the UK is locked irreversibly into a low carbon, energy secure prosperous future.”

Roger Bright, Chief Executive of The Crown Estate said: “I am delighted that we have today announced the Development Partners for all nine Round 3 zones. We have been working very closely with Government and a wide range of other interests to secure commitments from investors in offshore wind energy in the UK. The Crown Estate will continue to play an active role working closely with our new partners to deliver their offer of 32 GW – which equates to a quarter of the UK’s electricity needs. A series of supply chain events will be held across the UK in January, February and March to support the delivery of this growth industry and these will be hosted by The Crown Estate, the UK Government and the devolved administrations.”

With wind power playing such a prominent role in the United Kingdoms future energy plans now is a great time to apply for a job in the growing wind Industry sector.

The world’s largest offshore wind farm was opened yesterday off the Danish coast. Dong Energy, the European energy giant, inaugurated the wind farm located 30 Kms off the Danish coast.

Dong Energy chairman, Fritz H Schur, said in the inauguration ceremony that this event is part of their strategy to reposition themselves as providers of renewable energy. “This inauguration of the world’s largest offshore wind farm underlines that Dong Energy is among the frontrunners in the field”, he said.

The offshore wind farm has 91 turbines, which are expected to provide enough energy for up to 200,000 homes. The wind turbines are manufactured by Siemens and they are 2.5 MW turbines (20 MW for the whole wind farm, according to predictions by Dong Energy) which will provide 800 GWh per year. Each turbine stands 114 m tall in waters up to 17 m deep.

The facility cost €470m to build: “Half of the world’s current offshore wind power capacity was constructed by us. This inauguration of the world’s largest offshore wind farm underlines that Dong Energy is among the frontrunners in the field”, Fritz H Schur said. The company is also involved in the building of the next world’s largest offshore wind farm, a 1 GW wind farm placed in the Thames Estuary.

The European Wind Energy Association predicted that wind energy will provide up to 10% of the EU’s electricity. These new offshore wind farms will help this prediction become true.