The Crown Estate released the reports at this year’s Global Offshore Wind 2014 conference. The progress made by the UK wind sector means that it looks set to provide around 10 percent of the country’s electricity demand by 2020. The report ‘Offshore wind operational report 2014’ highlights the continuing growth within the sector while ‘Sharing lessons learned and good practice in offshore transmission’ sets out a pathway to cost reduction which will help unlock the sector’s potential.
“The UK is the number one country in the world for offshore wind, supporting green jobs and growth as well as strengthening our energy security” said UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey. “We have already attracted over £30 billion worth of investment in renewable technologies since 2010. Our ambitious electricity market reforms provide investors with the long-term certainty they need.”
Huub den Rooijen, Head of Offshore Wind at The Crown Estate, added that there have already been a number of significant milestones in 2014 for offshore wind development including the announcement of a total of £750 million of industry investment. The ‘Offshore Wind Operational Report 2014’ has also found that generation from offshore wind reached an unprecedented 11.5TWh in 2013, representing 3.3 per cent of UK electricity demand or enough to power 2.7 million homes.
Over the course of 2013, UK wind farms delivered a 37.7 percent capacity factor for the year as a whole. This is the highest portfolio average ever achieved among wind farms fully operational at the start of 2013. Employment in the offshore wind sector has more than doubled since 2010, to over 6,800 people, with offshore wind generation seeing year on year growth of 53 percent. The four wind farms of London Array, Greater Gabbard, Sheringham Shoal and Thanet accounted for half the wind energy production in 2013.
The report also includes updates on community engagement activities, measuring and understanding windiness, transmission and sustainability measures.
‘Sharing lessons learned and good practice in offshore transmission’ explores a number of enabling actions supported by the Crown Estate designed to help reduce costs and risk associated with developing the UK’s offshore renewable energy sector. This includes a study supported by DNV GL to explore one of the recommendations from the Offshore Wind Cost Reduction Taskforce on how the sector can better share knowledge, lessons learned and overall good practice. The report outlines how the sector can take a more structured approach to the way in which knowledge is shared, including a proposed ‘knowledge hub’ for information sharing.
For additional information:
Offshore wind operational report
Sharing Lessons Learned and Good Practice in Offshore Transmission summary
