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| Site of Greater Gabbard Offshore wind farm in the outer Thames Estuary
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Scottish and Southern Energy plc parent company of Airtricity has agreed to sell 50% of the equity in Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds Limited to Npower renewables, the UK fully owned subsidiary of RWE Innogy. RWE Innogy will also reimburse SSE for 50% of the capital costs already incurred in developing the project, in the outer Thames Estuary. The total cash consideration of the transaction is £308 million.
Irish company Airtricity, which was founded by entrepreneur Eddie O'Connor was acquired by SSE from NTR in February 2008 and the combined Airtricity / SSE team has developed 40 wind farms across Europe and North America resulting in over 1500MW, making it a leading wind farm developer.
GGOWL was originally established as a 50:50 joint venture partnership between Airtricity, acquired by SSE in February 2008, and Fluor International Limited. It was created specifically to develop the Greater Gabbard Offshore wind farm in the outer Thames Estuary, which, on completion, will become the world’s largest offshore wind farm. In May 2008, SSE acquired Fluor’s 50% stake, while stating its intention to dispose of it later in the year.
SSE will act as the operator of the project under a management services agreement with GGOWL. This will continue for both the construction and operational phases.
Onshore work on the construction of the wind farm is now under way, and offshore work is on track to begin in the middle of 2009. It will be commissioned in two phases, with the first phase generating electricity from 2010 and the entire construction scheduled to be completed in 2011.
On completion, the wind farm will have a total capacity of around 500MW, with 140 turbines mounted on steel monopiles and transition pieces, in water depths between 24 and 34 metres. It is expected to have a load factor of over 40%, based on site-specific met mast data collected since 2005, and SSE will take 50% of the output.
The development of Greater Gabbard, excluding the connection to the electricity grid, is expected to require investment of around £1.3bn.
Paul Dowling, Chief Executive of Airtricity said: “This year has been characterised by high and volatile prices for fossil fuels and by political uncertainty in key oil and gas producing regions. All of this again demonstrates the long-term value of energy sources which are both renewable and indigenous, and of our acquisition of Airtricity earlier this year.
“I am pleased that RWE Innogy will be our partner in this joint venture. Its long-standing interest and participation in offshore wind farm developments will complement our own expertise in the development of major renewable energy projects.
“Greater Gabbard is a major development in every sense, and its significance is underlined by RWE Innogy’s investment in it. Our priority is to make sure construction work proceeds in an efficient and timely manner, so that it can begin to play its important part in meeting the UK’s energy needs as soon as possible.”
