Vattenfall has lodged an application with The Crown Estate to win new seabed lease rights for an up to 340MW extension to its Thanet offshore wind farm, about 12km off the most eastern part of Kent in southeast England.

A Vattenfall spokesman told Recharge it would discuss its proposals to extend Thanet with The Crown Estate prior to submitting an application for planning consent to the UK’s Planning Inspectorate this summer.

“Most likely we will use a maximum of up to 34, 10MW turbines for the extension project. However, we are not yet certain over that number as it depends on the turbine market at the time,” he said.

The 300MW Thanet offshore wind farm currently runs on 100 MHI Vestas V90 3MW turbines.

Recharge in June 2016 first revealed that Vattenfall was looking again at a possible extension of Thanet, after the Swedish utility had stepped back from the project in 2010 citing concerns over grid access.

The seabed landlord last year published a so-called bi-lateral application process for extension projects, allowing them to be made on an ad-hoc basis rather than in a full leasing round.

Developers have now been set an end of May deadline by The Crown Estate to apply for any further offshore wind farm extension projects.

“We recognise that in a small number of instances there may be the potential for extensions to offshore wind farms which our customers may wish to explore,” said Will Apps, portfolio manager for offshore energy development at The Crown Estate.

“Subject to our application process and receiving all the relevant statutory approvals, such projects represent an efficient use of the seabed and would continue to strengthen the UK’s offshore wind pipeline.”

The Crown Estate cited previous UK offshore projects at Kentish Flats, Greater Gabbard, Walney and Burbo Bank, as examples which had proven the model for successful extension schemes.

The body has also launched a process paving the way for a new offshore wind leasing round which could kick off later this year or in early 2019.

The potential new round, presented by The Crown Estate to the government-industry body the Offshore Wind Industry Council last week, will be for new leasing in the waters off England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A Crown Estate spokeswoman told Recharge it intended to talk to developers over the course of this summer to consider the potential and best approach to new offshore leasing before making a final decision to move ahead.

The seabed landlord said its analysis to date is focussed on fixed offshore wind “as we anticipate that this will deliver the most competitive projects within the current policy context and therefore be the focus of market demand”.

Crown Estate Scotland is also in the preliminary stages of planning new leasing covering both fixed and floating offshore wind in Scottish waters.

Wind

Vattenfall applies for up to 340MW Thanet extension lease