Vattenfall makes investment decision on £300m Aberdeen Bay windfarm despite Brexit

In another sign of post Brexit vote confidence for the wind energy sector, Sweden’s Vattenfall have committed to a £300M investment in the Aberdeen bay offshore windfarm and testing ground.

Vattenfall has announced its final investment decision on the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre. The decision sees it buying out Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group’s 25% share for an undisclosed sum.

The Swedish company has taken full ownership of the company behind the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm Limited.

The 11 turbine project will send clean energy back to the grid, but will also serve as a test and demonstration ground for new technology. This will be aimed at bringing down the cost of offshore wind.

The 92.4MW project in Aberdeen Bay is all about trying experimental technologies to drive down the costs, Vattenfall said. “It’s all geared to a cost reduction,” said Gunnar Groebler, the senior vice president at Vattenfall. “We expect a lot of findings, a lot of options to further reduce the cost. If you look in Europe, the cost is clearly going south. This windfarm will help us get to the next level.”

The project is expected to be generating electricity by 2018 with a lifetime of around twenty years.

For more information, help or advice please contact Andrew Davison on 0191 211 7950 or email [email protected].