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