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Radar breakthrough for offshore wind

Wednesday 31 March 2010

Wind energy industry and Ministry of Defence agree support for key offshore wind farm developments

  • MoD objections to £7bn of offshore wind farms planned for Greater Wash to be removed through joint Government-industry funding for new radar system
  • The Crown Estate, Department for Energy and Climate Change and RenewableUK all engaged with MoD in groundbreaking deal

RenewableUK, the UK's leading renewable energy trade association, today announces a groundbreaking deal between the wind energy industry and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) which will see a joint government and industry-funded radar system installed to monitor the Greater Wash. This new system will enable the MoD to lift its current objections to five offshore wind farms which represent 7bn of investment and stand to deliver more than 3,000MW of wind energy, enough capacity to power 1.7 million homes.

The agreement to acquire a Lockheed Martin radar follows tests conducted in Denmark in 2008, and a subsequent extensive modelling exercise undertaken by Serco, which demonstrated that this system, already installed in over 150 locations worldwide, is able to consistently filter the movement of offshore turbines with other air and seaborne activity.

The full costs for the acquisition of the radar system have not been disclosed, though these have been jointly met by Government and wind energy companies seeking to construct the offshore wind farms in the Greater Wash. The costs have been negotiated jointly between industry and The Crown Estate as the seabed owner, DECC, the government Ministry for energy policy, the MoD as the principle objector to-date for the planned offshore wind farm development in the Greater Wash and Serco as the radar system provider.

Commenting on the agreement, Nicola Vaughan, Head of Aviation at RenewableUK said:

"RenewableUK is pleased that the objections by the Ministry of Defence to the development of these offshore wind farms, some 3,000MW of wind energy capacity, can now be lifted.

"Working together with government, the wind energy industry has proved that obstacles to such developments can be overcome in the interests of the UK as a whole; we look forward to continuing progress in other areas where opportunities for developing groundbreaking offshore wind energy schemes would enable further significant advances towards the UK's renewable aspirations."

-ENDS-

NOTES

  1. RenewableUK is the trade and professional body for the UK wind and marine renewables industries. Formed in 1978, and with 600 corporate members, RewewableUK is the leading renewable energy trade association in the UK. Wind has been the world's fastest growing renewable energy source for the last decade, and this trend is expected to continue with falling costs of wind energy and the urgent international need to tackle CO2 emissions to prevent climate change. Our primary purpose is to promote the use of renewable power in and around the UK, both onshore and offshore. We act as a central point for information for our membership and as a lobbying group to promote renewable energy to government.
  2. In 2004 The Crown Estate granted licences for a potential 3,000 MW of offshore wind development within the Greater Wash which will be in the line of sight of the Trimingham air defence radar. Licences for the third round of offshore development were awarded earlier this year by The Crown Estate, and the Norfolk Zone, one of the larger Round 3 zones with a potential capacity of up to 6,000 MW, will also be in the line of sight of Trimingham. The Greater Wash and Norfolk Zone combined have an offshore wind energy development potential of some 20% of the total planned UK capacity for the period up to 2020.
  3. Participating wind energy companies under this radar agreement are Scira Offshore Energy, Centrica, Warwick Energy and RWE npower renewables.

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