Commerce and Employment’s (C&E) Renewable Energy Team (RET) and Guernsey Electricity Limited (GEL) have appointed Xodus Group Limited and Exeter University to undertake a number of workstreams to investigate the feasibility work that they are jointly undertaking to research an offshore wind project in Guernsey’s local waters.
The workstreams include analysing imported electricity prices, understanding the best possible sites for a project, strategy for further resource analysis, further stakeholder engagement, potential project owners and more detailed understanding the project economics.
This forms part of the work looking more closely at a 30MW offshore wind project for Guernsey only consumption. The wind farm would be likely to generate enough electricity to supply around one third of Guernsey’s current electricity requirements.
This project builds upon previous work undertaken, including the RET sponsored PhD into public opinion on marine renewables. The public perception work was undertaken by Exeter University, and their consultancy arm has been appointed to build upon the previous research.
Xodus will be providing a team with wide ranging experience that compliments the project, RET said. This joint project builds upon earlier work and will help better understand the potential for offshore wind in Guernsey.
The joint work is likely to be completed in 2016 and will be shared publicly as well as informing continued debate on the future of energy supplies in Guernsey.
“It should also be noted that in exploring all renewable options RET have not discounted tidal or wave technologies, however currently neither tidal nor wave technologies are commercially available. As both technologies are still at a relatively nascent stage of development (no arrays are yet developed), offshore wind offers a potential near term option,” RET explained in a press release.