Masdar acquires stake in UK offshore wind farm

Masdar announced its partnership with Norway’s Statoil and Statkraft in a 402 MW Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm project, off the Norfolk coast in Eastern England.

Masdar acquired a 35% stake in the project from Statoil. This leaves Statoil retaining a 35% stake and remaining operator of the project, with the remaining 30% owned by Statkraft.

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, chairman of Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, stated:

As the only OPEC nation supplying both traditional and renewable energy to international markets, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is committed to accelerating the use of wind energy as an effective means of balancing the global energy mix as we move toward a sustainable, low carbon future.

Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm will be constructed with 67 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 6 MW, totalling 402 MW installed generation capacity. The annual energy production is estimated to be 1.7 TWh. The North Sea project site is located 32 km offshore, north of the town of Cromer in North Norfolk, and 20 km north-east of the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm.

The total investment in Dudgeon is estimated to be £1.5 billion (US$2.57 billion). Offshore construction is scheduled to start in 2016 and the project is expected to be fully operational in late 2017.

Masdar’s stake in Dudgeon is the company’s second major investment in the UK offshore wind energy market. The company also has a 20% stake in the 630 megawatt London Array project, the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

The UK is the world’s leader of installed, offshore wind power capacity. The UK government recently agreed to financially support eight new, large-scale renewable energy projects that will power millions of homes – five of them being offshore wind farms. The projects are expected to add 4.5 gigawatt of clean energy capacity to the grid.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said:

Masdar’s investment is a strong endorsement of the UK as the best place in the world to invest in offshore wind – and it shows the Government’s plan for green growth is working. Since 2010 we have seen, on average, £7 billion a year invested in renewables and we expect to see up to £50 billion more between now and 2020.