The state-owned energy provider DONG Energy has announced a 450 million kroner investment into the Race Bank offshore wind farm off the British coast.
The investment gives DONG full ownership of Race Bank, located 27 kilometres off the coast of Norfolk. The wind farm will have a 580 MW capacity and is expected to be ready in 2017.
“Race Bank fits really well with our existing pipeline of offshore wind turbine projects and it will contribute to the fulfilment of out strategic goal to establish 6,500 MW by 2020,” Samuel Leupol, the executive vice president of DONG’s wind division, said in a press release.
READ MORE: DONG makes its largest investment ever
British and German investment
Leupol said that the move would further consolidate DONG’s presence on the British market and pointed to the geographical outlay of the area as a critical component for the project's success.
“The Race Bank project is located reasonably close to the coast, with strong wind resources, low water depth and a sea-floor condition very similar to DONG Energy’s other British Round 2 projects,” Leupol said.
DONG Energy’s investment on the British market already include the offshore wind parks West of Duddon and Westermost Rough and it revealed last month that it had invested over 16 billion kroner in the Gode Wind 1 + 2 wind farm projects in Germany – the company's largest ever investment.
READ MORE: Private investment in DONG Energy finalised
Movers and shakers
Earlier this week, DONG also announced that it had agreed to sell its Severn power plant in Wales for just over three billion kroner.
The news comes just a week after DONG Energy revealed that three private investors – ATP, Goldman Sachs and pension fund PFA – bought into the state-owned company. The buy-in drops the government’s percentage of ownership in DONG from 81 to 60 percent.
