Swedish firm, Vattenfall has won the tender to build Danish Kriegers Flak, a 600MW offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea.
A statement from Vattenfall disclosed that the winning bid was worth €49.9 per megawatts hour (MWh), which it said is among the lowest costs in the world for offshore wind power.
“The announcement is an essential milestone for our ambition to increase our production of renewable power.
“We are already the second largest offshore player globally. The winning bid of €49.9 per MWh proves that Vattenfall is highly competitive and brings down the costs for renewable energy,” said Magnus Hall, CEO of Vattenfall in the statement.
It explained that Kriegers Flak will be Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm and can supply 600,000 Danish households with renewable energy – corresponding to 23 per cent of all households in Denmark.
Accordingly, Vattenfall’s investment in Kriegers Flak will be €1.1 to €1.3 billion, pending on a final investment decision (FID).
“This is exciting news. I’m very proud of our people in the Wind organisation who once again delivered a winning bid.
“Vattenfall has won the three latest offshore wind tenders in Denmark; Horns Rev 3, Danish Near Shore and Kriegers Flak, equivalent to the energy consumption of 55 per cent of the Danish households,” the statement quoted Gunnar Groebler, Head of Vattenfall Wind to have said.
It noted that in September, Vattenfall won the tender for the Danish Near Shore project (350MW) and the project is pending the Danish Parliament’s decision to proceed.
Groebler added: “Our winning bid for Kriegers Flak is 58 per cent below the original cap of €0.12. For the Danish Near Shore project the bid was also substantially below its cap.
“Proceeding with these two projects, Vattenfall provides Denmark with a cost efficient contribution to meet the country’s climate targets and customers’ demand for renewable energy.”
As explained in the statement, Kriegers Flak is part of the Danish Parliament’s political agreement from 2012 to become a green and resource efficient economy entirely independent of fossil fuels by 2050.
A part of that agreement is to build three major offshore wind farms, Horns Rev 3, Danish Near Shore and Kriegers Flak, where Vattenfall has won the tenders for all three projects.
It stated that winning the bid for Kriegers Flak means that Vattenfall can start to develop the 132km2 area in the Baltic Sea. The area it noted, consists of three parts dedicated for wind power development in Germany, Sweden and Denmark.
Also, the statement said that Vattenfall’s winning bid concerns the Danish part of the Kriegers Flak area and that the Swedish part of Kriegers Flak has a building permit that expires in 2018 while the German part has not yet been tendered.
Kriegers Flak, it added will be monitored from Vattenfall’s Surveillance Centre in Esbjerg, Denmark. The Surveillance Centre already monitors more than 1,000 turbines in Northern Europe.
