Vattenfall is looking at using wind turbines with a capacity of between 7MW and 20MW at its proposed 1,800MW Norfolk Vanguard offshore wind farm in the UK.
This is according to the announcement that the company has issued in a Statement of Community Consultation (SoCC) document, setting out a plan to discuss and get feedback on the Preliminary Environmental Information (PEI) report.
The PEI report contains information on a potential offshore wind farm which would comprise from 90 to 257 turbines with a generating capacity of between 7MW and 20MW and a height of up to 350 metres. The wind farm would be installed 47km offshore from the coast of Norfolk at its closest point to land and would cover a total area of up to 592km², but it would not be visible from the Norfolk coast, according to the SoCC document .
Norfolk Vanguard is planned to be operational in mid-2020s, for when two-digit capacity turbines have been already said to hit the market, however this was so far discussed mostly in relation to those with a generating capacity of up to 15MW, as expected by DONG Energy for its projects to be built by 2024 .
Leaving room for industry’s best
In the SoCC document, Vattenfall said it aims to use next-generation technology that is both robust and resilient so it could withstand conditions in the southern North Sea, and this is the reason the company is looking at maintaining “optionality in a rapidly developing industry.”
Namely, the developer says the Norfolk Vanguard project will maintain flexibility in some key areas of design possibly until after the development consent is granted. This includes foundations, size and model of wind turbines, transmission system (AC or DC) and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) monitoring system.
Furthermore, the developer said that the project’s deployment of innovative technology including larger turbines and its large scale and strategic development alongside its sister project Norfolk Boreas, also planned to have a 1.8GW capacity, will lead to economies of scale and increased operational efficiency, thus bringing down the cost of energy.
Vattenfall is expected to submit the development consent application for Norfolk Vanguard to the UK Planning Inspectorate in the second quarter of 2018, while the Norfolk Boreas application is anticipated to be submitted in 2019.
Offshore WIND Staff