EDF ENERGY

Cementing Top Spot in UK Renewables EDF RENEWABLES

PRODUCTION: Timothy Reeder

Not satisfied with its status as the UK’s largest producer of low-carbon electricity, the biggest supplier of electricity by volume in Great Britain and the largest supplier to British businesses, EDF Renewables is bolstering its operations in the territory with a fleet of new wind farm sites.

// With a potential capacity of 600 MW, EDF Energy Renewables (EDF ER) has bought 11 wind farm sites in Scotland from Partnerships for Renewables, a development and asset management company. Three sites with around 100 MW of capacity already have planning consent, with one site in the planning system and a further seven others in development. The majority of the projects are on land managed by Forest Enterprise Scotland, while the acquisition follows the opening of EDF Energy Renewables new offices in Edinburgh earlier this year.

It provides further evidence of EDF Group’s commitment to Scotland and renewable energy in the UK and around the world, with its current 319 MW in operation in Scotland and more than 1 GW in development, including the fully consented 340 MW Lewis Wind Farm projects.

EDF Energy Renewables Chief Executive Matthieu Hue said: “We are very pleased to be adding these ‘Partnerships for Renewables’ projects to our portfolio. EDF Energy Renewables has a well-established strategy to grow our business either by developing our own sites or through acquiring high calibre projects. This deal underlines our ambitions to develop our business further and to expand the number of wind farm projects we are developing.”

There is also cause for celebration within EDF ER’s existing portfolio, with the first turbine foundation making its way up the River Tyne to finish at the company’s Blyth Offshore Wind Farm Project in July this year. The project will comprise five wind turbines with a total generating capacity of 41.5 MW installed around 6.5km off the coast of Blyth, which when operational will generate enough low carbon electricity to power around 34,000 homes. Concrete gravity based foundations (GBFs) form part of the project and are being installed using a new “float and submerge” method – the first time this method has been used for offshore wind turbines.

Hue said: “This is the first major offshore operation on this project and over the coming months people will be able to see the wind farm being built out at sea. This ground-breaking scheme will benefit the North East of England and help the UK to meet its future low carbon electricity needs. The GBFs were designed and built by Royal BAM Group in the Neptune dry dock on the Tyne and are held in place by gravity and this unique design reduces the need to use expensive marine equipment for the installation on the sea bed.” Five major wind turbine foundations, each weighing 15,000 tonnes, have since been successfully installed, and work is now underway to lay around 11km of cables offshore to connect the individual turbines and bring the electricity onshore. EDF Energy Renewables director of operations, Don Mackay, commented: “This is an important milestone in a ground-breaking project. The Blyth offshore wind demonstrator project incorporates several new and innovative features as part of its role in testing and proving new and emerging offshore installation methods and technologies.”

EDF RENEWABLES

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