UK utility SSE said it expects within days to hit financial close on its share of the 3.6GW Dogger Bank project, the world’s largest offshore wind farm that it is building with Equinor off eastern England.
SSE, which owns 50% of Dogger Bank with the Norwegian energy group holding the rest, is responsible for the delivery of the £9bn ($11bn) wind farm, with Equinor taking over for the operational phase.
The three-stage project will kick-off by using the world’s most powerful wind turbines to date, 13MW Haliade-X machines from GE Renewable Energy.
Dogger Bank is due to start installing turbines in 2023. Once fully online in 2026, the wind project, located in 20-35 metres of water over 130km off the northeast coast of England, will be capable of powering up to 4.5 million UK homes.
SSE said financial close on Dogger Bank was imminent as it unveiled plans to add 1GW of new renewable capacity a year annually by the second half of the decade.
The company – which claims currently leading more offshore wind development than any other sector player globally – is also advancing the 1.1GW Seagreen project with Total. Earlier this week it revealed it would link up with Japanese industrial giant Marubeni Corporation and Danish fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) to bid in the upcoming ScotWind offshore wind leasing round.
It updated investors with its latest quarterly results as the UK government reaffirmed the central role of offshore wind in its plans for a ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ in Britain that will support up to 250,000 jobs.
CEO Alistair Phillips-Davies said: “We have a portfolio of options that are second to none and a strong balance sheet that supports our plans to develop, own and operate the infrastructure that is so badly needed to build a better world of energy.”
SSE is one of the UK's 'partner' for the COP26 UN climate summit, which will be held in Glasgow next year. Along with ScottishPower and Equinor the group earlier this week committed to building an up to 4GW power link to transport offshore wind output between Scotland and northern England.
