Forewind consists of the Norwegian companies Statoil and Statkraft, as well as SSE Renewables (Scottish and Southern Energy) and RWE Npower (the clean energy unit of German RWE AG).
In total the Crown Estate selected partners for nine sites, which will hold up to 5000 wind turbines and could provide as much as a quarter of the UK’s electricity demand by 2020. At present offshore wind power provides only 2 percent of UK electricity. Dogger Bank is the largest of these nine sites, and will also become the largest offshore wind farm in Europe with its production of 9 GW.
The Dogger Bank is located from 125 to 195 kilometres off the coast of Yorkshire, which means that these wind turbines will be placed in deeper water and farther offshore than ever attempted before. “Dogger Bank is a challenging zone, where our competence from offshore oil and gas will be of great importance”, says Margareth Øvrum, Executive vice president for Technology and New Energy, Statoil.
Both Statoil and Statkraft are already involved in the British offshore wind farm Sheringham Shoal (315MW), which will produce enough electricity for 220 000 households from 2011. Construction at Dogger Bank will begin in 2014.