Revealed: Fred Olsen and EDF power price for first Irish gigascale offshore wind farm

Ireland’s first gigascale offshore wind farm – Fred Olsen Seawind and EDF’s Codling – won its 1.3GW of capacity in the nation’s first auction with a strike price of €89.82/MWh ($98.3/MWh).

The winning price emerged as the Oslo-listed parent group of Fred Olsen Seawind told investors that Irish network operator Eirgrid had confirmed Codling as a winner in the auction, following preliminary results in mid-May.

Codling – which is 50/50 owned by Fred Olsen and EDF – was the largest winner in the round, Ireland’s first for offshore wind, which awarded four projects 3.1GW of capacity at an average price of €86.05/MWh in a bid to get turbines in the water at large scale by 2030.

Energy minister Eamon Ryan at the time said the prices achieved were among the lowest “paid by an emerging offshore wind market in the world. For comparison, the average wholesale electricity price in Ireland over the past 12 months was in excess of €200/MWh”.

The auction marked a big step for the stalled Irish offshore wind sector, which despite having some of the world's best resources only has one project in the water, the 25MW Arklow Bank 1 that entered service as long ago as 2004.

Lars Bender, chief executive of Fred Olsen Seawind said: “For all contractors we’re still looking at all possibilities. On financing – we need to discuss that as partners, we haven’t made a firm decision, but of course as a basis for the project we’ve looked at project finance.”