Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, has announced financial close on its share of London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, with SgurrEnergy acting as technical advisor to the banks on the transaction.
The first phase of the groundbreaking project, located 20km off the coast of Essex and Kent, is jointly owned by DONG Energy (50%), E.ON (30%) and Masdar (20%) and became fully operational in April this year, after more than two years of offshore construction work.
Global renewable energy consultancy, SgurrEnergy, part of Wood Group, has provided lender’s engineer services since 2009 for the landmark development on behalf of joint-owner, Masdar. The Glasgow-based company provided a detailed techno-commercial review of the project for the pool of lenders which focused on all key aspects of wind farm design, construction and operation.
The 630MW wind farm was officially opened by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, at an inauguration ceremony held in Margate on the 4th of July 2013.
Andrew Cole, project manager with SgurrEnergy , said, “We are delighted to have worked on such a monumental project which will make a significant impact to clean energy generation within the UK. We are proud to have supported Masdar in leading the development to this significant milestone over the last four years and look forward to continuing our involvement by providing operational monitoring services to its lenders during the operation phase.”
London Array comprises 175 3.6MW Siemens wind turbines and will generate enough clean energy to power nearly half a million UK homes, reducing CO2 emissions by over 900,000 tonnes per year.
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Press release, October 10, 2013; Image: londonarray