Windfarm extension work starts next week

Vattenfall is poised to start work on a £165m extension to the Kentish Flats offshore wind farm, which will see 15 new turbines installed off the Kent coast by the end of next year. The Swedish utility today confirmed it would start offshore construction work next week on the latest phase of the development, preparing the seabed to lay 30 kilometres of cables from the wind farm to the shore in Herne Bay.

Once complete, the project is expected to increase the current capacity of the 90MW Kentish Flats offshore wind farm by more than 50 per cent to a total of 139.5MW. Matthew Green, Vattenfall project director for the construction of Kentish Flats Extension said:

"Kentish Flats Extension was consented in spring 2013 and since then we have been planning, organising and contracting. We're now ready to go and by this time next year we plan to be generating low carbon power from all 15 wind turbines. Building an offshore wind farm is no easy task; that is why it is one of the most exciting engineering challenges around today."

The company plans to start installing foundations in spring 2015, and will then install each of the Vestas 3.3MW wind turbines by the end of July.

The announcement represents a boost to an offshore wind industry that has been hit in recent weeks by warnings that a number of proposed projects are "grinding to a halt" amid concerns over the transition from the government's current subsidy regime to its new support mechanism.

Business Green 15th Oct 2014

Windfarm extension: Vattenfall says...

Kentish Flats Extension

Vattenfall has started a discussion and consultation with the local community, local authorities and statutory consultees regarding the extension of Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm. It would like to extend the 30-turbine scheme by between 10 and 17 turbines and if 3 megawatt (MW) turbines are used this would give an additional installed total capacity of between 30 and 51MW.

If consented and built Vattenfall expects the extension to generate between 90,000 megawatt hours and just over 150,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of green electricity every year, which is equivalent to the total annual electricity needs of between 20,000 UK households and 35,000 UK households*.

If extended, Kentish Flats, with between 120 and 141MW total installed capacity would be expected to generate between 350,00MWh and just over 430,000MWh of green electricity every year, which is equivalent to the total annual electricity needs of between 82,000 UK households and 96,000 UK households.

Due to its size the proposal will be considered and consented by the Infrastructure Planning Commission following an extensive community consultation with the people of Kent. Discussions with the IPC have already taken place and if you would like to find out more about the consultation process please visit:
IPC- Kentish Flats extension - Pre-application (new window)
IPC - planning commission (new window)

The zone that Vattenfall is considering to develop the extension in is more than 7km from shore and covers nearly 8 sq km. More information will follow shortly about Vattenfall's plans, the community consultation and how the public can effectively engage with Vattenfall ahead of a planning application sometime in 2011.

In May this year Vattenfall was offered the opportunity to extend both Kentish Flats and Thanet Offshore Wind Farms by The Crown Estate, which leases the seabed on behalf of the UK Government to wind farm developers like Vattenfall. Vattenfall assessed the feasibility of both projects and has decided to seek consent from the IPC for an extension to Kentish Flats only.

The Crown Estate (new window)

The 90MW Kentish Flats has been generating green electricity since 2005. Find out more about this project by visiting:
Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm (www.vattenfall.com, new window)

*This is calculated in the following way:
Number of hours in the year: 8760
Installed capacity: 30 to 51MW
Average industry capacity factor for offshore wind: 35%
Average annual UK household electricity consumption: 4,478 kilowatt hours (kWh)
For example: (8760 x 30 x 35%) x 1000 = 91,980,000kWh divided by 4,478 = 20,540 homes.

Windfarm extension: your opinion

The Vattenfall roadshow came to town, well the King's Hall, to tell all-comers about the proposed extra turbines at the Kentish Flats windfarm, 5 miles off the Herne Bay coast.

They lease the seabed from the Crown Estate, and their lease is measured in megawatts (MW) of electricity output. The proposed extension permits 51MW of production. If they install turbines that are the same size as the current ones, they will need 17 new turbines. Their planning application would allow then to install bigger turbines, but there would have to be fewer of them, to stay within the 51MW limit.

The Vattenfall guy I spoke to said that Vattenfall were just keeping their options open as to what kind/size of turbine to install when they start construction - in 2014, according to the plan. I assume their eventual decision will be guided by profit.

See, print or download a copy of the Public Opinion Survey here. Or fill it in online at Vattenfall's website here.

Windfarm extension is planned

HB Times 21st Oct 2010

Windfarm extension

HB Gazette 14th Oct 2010

Stuck in the mud