Anglo-Scots consortium seeks 50% turbine capacity upgrade for new N. Sea offshore wind-power station

The Anglo-Scottish consortium which aims to build a large-scale new offshore wind farm in the North Sea east of Dundee wants to increase the generating capacity of its planned turbines by 50%.

The Seagreen Wind Energy consortium comprises the Pearth-based utility SSE and the UK arm of the Fluor engineering conglomerate.

It received Scot-Govt for two off shore wind farms, Seagreen Alpha and Seagreen Bravo totalling 1050-MW in 2012.

The application was then put on hold as it was caught up in the legal appeal against planning permission by the RSPB against the Mainstream Renewables’ NnG project.

However, that appeal was ultimately rejected last year by the British supreme court, meaning Seagreen can now proceed with its plans.

But before construction starts, the consortium now plans to increase the size of the turbine generators it plans to install in the two wind farms – because wind turbine technology has advanced considerably since the original application in 2012 – as follows;

• Approximately 750-MW capacity in each project (approximately 1500MW combined capacity), compared to the initial 1050-MW capacity
• Up to 75 wind turbines, of up to 167m rotor diameter, in each project (up to 150 in total)
• OR up to 70 wind turbines, of up to 220m rotor diameter, in each project (up to 120 in total)
•  Jacket, gravity base, suction caisson or monopile foundations (maximum of 70)
• The initial planning approval was for up to two  525 Megawatt (MW) capacity in each project (1050-MW combined capacity) and up to 75 wind turbines in each project (150 total).

The Seagreen Alpha and Seagreen Bravo off shore wind farms will be connected to National Grid transmission network via export cables that reach landfall near Carnoustie, and then run underground to a new substation next to the existing substation near Tealing, north of Dundee.

1 Mar 2018