Developers Unveil Plans for Wind Farm off East Yorkshire Coast (UK)

PLANS for a huge wind farm to be built off the East Yorkshire coast have been unveiled to the public reports the Grimsby Telegraph. With the firm behind the scheme promising hundreds of jobs to people in North East Lincolnshire if the scheme goes ahead.

Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Project Ventures are leading the SMart Wind development, which could – when completed – feed in 4GW of power to the National Grid via a sub-station at North Killingholme.

If given the go-ahead, the Round Three wind farm in Hornsea will mean long-term investment in the area until 2020 – creating jobs in construction, operations and maintenance.

The public meeting in North Killingholme yesterday was phase two of the consultation and addressed the impact of the underground cable routes needed to link up the wind farm to the National Grid sub-station already located in the area.

A new onshore HVDC converter station will be built in close proximity to the substation and four areas are earmarked as potential sites for this.

 Chris Jenner, environment and consents manager for SMart Wind, was pleased with the response from the public and pledged the company’s commitment to the area.

He said: “The Humber is strategically extremely well-placed to deliver the exports for both construction and operation and maintenance for Round Three. It is right in the centre of the wind zone, the water is the right depth.

 “There are numerous studies and potential jobs to be delivered and required for Round Three.

 “Through our work with Smart Futures we have engaged with local organisations, including four years with local schools, to promote awareness of the opportunities these projects can bring.

 “We want them to know that when they leave school there will be opportunities across the region. These are jobs that require different skills.

 “We want them to know that they don’t have to leave the region to find work. There will be jobs in operations, maintenance and management and we need a workforce to deliver that.”

The company is part of a UK cost reduction task force when it comes to offshore wind, following the release of the Government’s Renewable Energy Roadmap in July.

They, along with other leading representatives, will set out a path and action plan to reduce the costs of offshore wind to £100 per MWh by 2020 – and they are already making headway after developing the UK’s first Round 3 Meteorological Mast to measure wind speeds.

This uses a novel “twisted jacket” design at the base, which could also be used for the turbines, reducing the size of them and therefore the cost, while retaining their performance levels and allowing them to build more turbines in one place.

 Mr Jenner said: “We are looking at bringing new technology to bring down the cost. This is a large scale project and savings are essential.”

The company hopes phase three consultation will begin in spring next year, when the site selected for the converter and initial plan design will be presented.

The application will be submitted in the summer and a decision by the Infrastructure Planning Commission will be made by 2013.

Construction of the wind farm will then be rolled out in four projects and completed by 2020.

[mappress]

Source: footprintrenewables, November 11, 2011