Vattenfall has won the concession to build and operate the offshore wind farm Horns Rev 3 outside the Danish west coast. The offered price of 77 ore/kWh (10,3 €-ct/kWh) was the most competitive bid.
Vattenfall has persevered against Dong Energy E.on and Statoil within the tender for the offshore wind park Horns Rev 3. Vattenfall’s CEO Magnus Hall welcomes the decision that Vattenfall had the most competitive bid. Now the company awaits approval from the Danish Parliament and EU. Horns Rev 3 will have a total capacity of 400 MW and is planned to produce electricity from 2017 on.
According to the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) the price was "far cheaper than other offshore wind farms in both Denmark and abroad". Compared with the 105.1 ore/kWh bid by Dong for the now operational 400 MW Anholt wind farm, Vattenfall’s bid for Horns Rev 3 was 32 % less. "This makes the project the cheapest in Europe at the moment," said the agency. This is not just because of the favourable wind conditions but also because of the only about 20 km distance to the coast. “This large, planned offshore wind farm will affect Vattenfall’s ambitions concerning wind power and especially our focus on offshore wind farms. Today we are the second largest operator of offshore wind power farms in the world and one of the largest operators of onshore wind power in Denmark. That gives us even better ways and means to develop sustainable energy production to become both profitable and competitive – in benefit of the Danish consumers,” says Hall.
With Vattenfall as owner of the concession for Horns Rev 3, the company gets a unique opportunity for synergies between several offshore wind power farms, according to Alberto Mendez Rebollo, Head of Vattenfall Nordic Wind Power operations. “Our Control Centre in Esbjerg today monitors more than 1,000 wind turbines, offshore and onshore, and Horns Rev 3 will imply positive synergies in operation and maintenance of offshore wind farms in the Nordic Sea,” says Alberto Mendez Rebollo.
Vattenfall owns 60 % of the wind farm Horns Rev 1, 80 wind turbines, and is currently building, together with utility company Stadtwerke München, two offshore wind farms in the German part of the Nordic Sea: Dan Tysk and Sandbank. Besides that, Vattenfall is developing the wind farm Kentish Flats in the UK.
Katharina Garus
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