Eneco has announced that it will purchase half of all the electricity generated by the planned second phase of the offshore C-Power Wind Farm on a long term basis.
The wind farm is located on the Thornton Bank at a distance of approximately 30 kilometres off the Belgian coast and currently has a production capacity of 30 MW for which Eneco had already concluded a long term contract. With the new contract, Eneco exceeds the 1000 MW limit in terms of available wind energy production capacity, Eneco said.
C-Power’s Belgian offshore wind farm will be expanded with a capacity of 295 MW, 147.5 MW of which will be purchased by Eneco on a long term basis. Currently, C-Power produces 30 MW for Eneco. With the new contract, the volume of sustainable energy production from wind turbines that is available to Eneco increases to 1,050 MW; a memorable step towards achieving the company’s sustainability objectives.
For the expansion of the wind farm, C-Power has selected 6.15 MW wind turbines (first in the world) produced by the German company REpower that also supplied the 5 MW turbines that are currently being used. The C-Power Wind Farm expansion will be financed by ten financial institutions, including the Dutch banks Rabobank and ASN Bank, which will provide them with facilities totalling EUR 869 million (see C-Power press release of 25 November), the company added.
“The existing operational relationship between Eneco and C-Power and Eneco’s unique market knowledge in the field of wind energy formed the basis for this success”, says Eneco board member Kees-Jan Rameau. C-Power CEO Filip Martens supports this with his statement that: “The good exchange of experience with Eneco during the first (30 MW) phase of the C-Power project created an excellent basis to broaden our cooperation significantly (+ 147.5 MW) for the next phase of the Thornton Bank project.”
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Source: istockanalyst, December 23, 2010