Vattenfall obtains right to develop wind power project off German coast - Reuters
Vattenfall gets rights to build wind power project off German coast | Reuters
Vattenfall gets rights to build wind power project off German coast
Wind turbines from Vattenfall are seen at the North Sea in Scheveningen, Netherlands August 25, 2022. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
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COPENHAGEN, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Vattenfall plans to build a 630 megawatt wind power plant off the German North Sea coast, after obtaining the rights to the project, the Swedish utility said in a statement on Thursday.
The Nordlicht II project, together with the previously announced Nordlicht I project in the same area, will amount to an output of 1.61 gigawatts, Vattenfall said.
The two wind farms could together produce enough electricity to cover the annual consumption of more than 1.7 million German households, it added.
Pending a final investment decision, the two projects could be connected to the German grid by 2027 and 2028 respectively, Vattenfall said.
The rights to the Nordlicht II project were initially awarded to competitor RWE (RWEG.DE) at an auction in August.
However, Vattenfall had previously developed a project at the site, allowing it to exercise a right of entry to develop and construct the wind farm.
Vattenfall already operates two wind farms in Germany.
Earlier this year, the company paused the development of a planned offshore wind farm in Britain after rising costs.
Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen in Copenhagen and Nora Buli in Oslo Editing by Essi Lehto and Mark Potter
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.