The Walney 1 Offshore Wind Farm, off the shore of Cumbria, has Thursday January 13th 2011 started producing the first CO2-free electricity to the UK’s national grid.  

Electricity has been generated from the first of the 51 turbines that Walney 1 Offshore Wind Farm will consist of eventually. When fully operational, the Walney 1 and 2 wind farms, will have a capacity of 367.2MW of CO2-free renewable energy production, enough to power around 320,000 homes or one-and-a-half times the number of homes in Cumbria. The total cost of the two wind farms is around 1 billion £ and is owned by DONG Energy (50.1%), Scottish & Southern Energy (25.1%) and a consortium of PGGM and Dutch Ampère Equity Fund, managed by Triodos Investment Management (24.8%).

The Walney Wind Farms is located approximately 15km west of Barrow-in-Furness and they will each comprise 51 turbines. The construction of Walney 1 began in March 2010, and all turbines in the wind farm have now been installed, and will be commissioned over the coming months. The second phase of the project, Walney 2, also with 51 turbines, will begin installation in March 2011 and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2011. Once fully operational, the wind farms will employ around 60 people.

“The United Kingdom has a very ambitious plan for expanding the production of renewable energy and a target of making green energy and reliability of supply go hand in hand, and we are pleased to be able to contribute to the expansion of renewable energy", says Niels Bergh-Hansen, Executive Vice President of DONG Energy "The first power from Walney 1 is a tangible result of our efforts to increase our production of renewable energy.”

Colin Hood, SSE’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “This is a major milestone in the development of Walney Wind Farm and it demonstrates the excellent progress being made on the project. As the UK’s leading generator of electricity from renewable sources, SSE is committed to helping to increase further the amount of renewable electricity generation in the UK, and the export of electricity at Walney is a step towards achieving this.”

For further information:

DONG Energy
Media Relations
Andreas Krog
+45 9955 2023

Facts:

The Walney Offshore Windfarm
During the years 2010 and 2011 respectively the Walney (UK) Offshore Windfarms Ltd. will construct Walney 1 and Walney 2 of the Walney Offshore Wind Farm. The Walney Offshore Wind Farm is located approximately 15km from the coastline of Walney Island in a north west to south-easterly direction covering an area of approximately 73km2. 

The two wind farms will each comprise 51 turbines with a total capacity of 367.2MW. The development includes foundations, turbines, export- and array cables, offshore substations and onshore connection to grid. The capacity of each turbine is 3.6MW, and the rotor diameter of the turbines is 107m for Walney 1 and 120m for Walney 2, with a maximum height of 150m from sea level to blade tip.

Operation and maintenance of the wind farm will be situated in Barrow-in-Furness and comprising approximately 60 people when Walney 1 and Walney 2 are in operation, providing opportunities for partnerships with local business throughout the project lifetime and creating jobs in the Furness area.
Further information on the project at www.wowind.co.uk

DONG Energy is one of the leading energy groups in Northern Europe. We are headquartered in Denmark. Our business is based on procuring, producing, distributing and trading in energy and related products in Northern Europe. We generated just under DKK 50 billion (approx. EUR 6.6 billion) in revenue in 2009.
For further information, see www.dongenergy.com.

SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) is a FTSE-100 company headquartered in Perth, employing more than 19,000 people. The company has a market capitalisation of around £10 billion, and supplies over 9.6 million energy customers in Great Britain and Ireland.
For further information, see www.scottish-southern.co.uk/

PGGM:
PGGM is the administrative organisation for collective pension schemes, principally in the care and welfare sector. It is also an income provider for people in the care and welfare sector. PGGM currently manages around EUR 100 billion of pension assets of over 2.3 million participants.

Ampère Equity Fund:
Ampère Equity Fund, managed by Triodos Investment Management, invests in renewable energy projects in Western Europe. It invests with amounts in the range of EUR 10 million to EUR 50 million equity per investment. The fund focuses on investments in energy producing assets applying proven technology. such as onshore wind, offshore wind, solar PV, concentrated solar power and biomass power plants that provide stable and predictable long term returns for its investors. The Fund has attracted major Dutch institutional investors with a total committed capital of EUR 320 million which provides certainty of funding for its investment strategy until the end of 2011. Triodos Investment Management is a subsidiary of Triodos Bank with over 25 years’ experience in renewable energy investments.