EIB Offers £300m funding to help connect UK Offshore Wind

Thursday, Nov 19, 2009

The funding will be available for six projects, which mark the start of an important phase of expansion of offshore wind generation. In total, the six transmission projects will connect around 1.6 GW of offshore wind generation.

Given the importance of offshore wind in cutting emissions, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Ofgem E-Serve have put in place competitive arrangements to ensure generators benefit from cost effective connections to the mainland electricity network. Those firms competing to run connections to these six projects can now apply to the EIB for funding.

The six eligible offshore wind projects are: Sheringham Shoal (315 MW), Ormonde (150 MW), Greater Gabbard (504 MW), Thanet (300 MW) and Walney 1 and 2 (178 and 183 MW respectively).

Simon Brooks, Vice-President of EIB said, “The European Investment Bank welcomes Ofgem’s initiative in promoting this essential element of the UK’s renewable energy infrastructure. Electricity from offshore wind farms will make a key contribution to national power supply and help achieve 2020 emissions targets.”

Lord Mogg, Chairman of Ofgem said, “The EIB’s decision to consider these projects for funding of over £300 million is an important step forward for delivering competitively priced connections for offshore wind farms.

“By adopting a competitive process for connections Ofgem E-Serve is endeavouring to keep the cost of connection to generators as low as possible. This brings benefits to consumers, who will ultimately fund the £15 billion required to connect the 33 GW of offshore generation needed to help meet Britain’s emission targets.”

Lord Hunt, UK Minister of Energy, said, “The EIB’s support will be very welcome. Connecting offshore wind farms to the grid quickly and cost-effectively will be crucial to tackling climate change and securing our future energy supplies. This money would help projects currently under construction get their cables in the water and feeding into the grid quickly and cheaply.”

Ofgem E-Serve is the delivery arm of the UK gas and electricity markets regulator, Ofgem. Ofgem E-Serve focuses on administering environmental programmes such as the Renewables Obligation, Carbon Emission Reduction Target, Community Energy Saving Programme and the Climate Change Levy exemption for renewables. It also manages the delivery of sustainable projects such as offshore transmission connections and is expected to have a key role in the delivering of feed-in tariffs for microgeneration and the proposed Carbon Capture and Storage Levy.