Vattenfall to expand UK wind presence

By Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent
Published: November 6 2008 23:28

Vattenfall is set to buy one of the UK’s biggest proposed offshore wind farms, in the latest step in its aggressive push into the British wind energy market.
The Swedish power company is in advanced talks with Christofferson, Robb and Company, an investment management company, for the rights to the Thanet wind farm, a 300MW farm set to be constructed off the coast of Kent.

Neither Vattenfall nor CRC would comment on Thursday on the proposed deal. The value is likely to be less than £50m, but if successful, Vattenfall will have to invest an estimated £800m to build the turbines.
This is Vattenfall’s third wind energy deal in the UK in the past two months.
In September, Vattenfall announced it would buy Eclipse Energy, a developer with a portfolio of six wind projects under development with a projected capacity of about 200MW, for £51.5m.
Last month, the company bought Amec Wind Energy, with a capacity of nearly 600MW, for £127m.
Vattenfall also operates the Kentish Flats offshore wind farm, comprising 30 turbines, each of 3MW capacity.
The Thanet project had been suffering delays as the costs of offshore wind farm construction have soared. There is a shortage of turbines and of the vessels needed to build the farms.
Climate Change Capital, a boutique investment bank specialising in carbon-cutting projects, has advised Vattenfall on its deals.
Interest in the UK’s offshore wind market has been increasing. On Monday, RWE said that it would pay £308m for half of the Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm, now under construction.
Separately, Mainstream Renewable Power, the Irish wind farm developer founded by Eddie O’Connor, former chief executive of Airtricity, said it had signed a deal to build wind farms in Chile.
In a joint venture with Andes Energy, Mainstream will construct 400MW of generating capacity, which would cost about $1bn (£630,000) to build.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008