World's largest floating wind plant starts pumping to Norwegian hydro giant
Statkraft starts receiving electricity from Cobra-led 50WW Kincardine array off Scotland under power purchase deal inked in 2018 as storied project revs up
Power is now flowing to Norwegian hydro giant Statkraft from the world’s biggest floating wind farm, the 50MW Kincardine, following the long-delayed switch-on of the array off Scotland by a development consortium led by Spain’s Grubo Cobra.
Under a power purchase agreement (PPA) that runs to 2029, the Oslo-headquartered utility will take 100% of output “at a guaranteed minimum price per megawatt” from the project, which is built around six Principle Power WindFloat platforms topped by five 9.5MW Vestas turbines and one 2MW machine, moored in 60-80 metres of water off Aberdeen.
“We entered into this agreement with Statkraft with confidence, knowing that selecting them and selecting this particular PPA structure, provided us with clarity on our long-term income. It also gave us a partner that we were willing to work with on a long-term basis,” said Cobra managing director Jaime Altolaguirre.
John Puddephatt, Statkraft’s manager of long term PPA origination, said "This is the first floating project that Statkraft has been involved in and we expect more to follow; a key technology that could help countries around the world achieve their renewable energy targets.
“PPAs such as these play a key role in providing project owners with financial predictability and security therefore helping enable long term investment and financing.
At full-throttle, Kincardine will produce some 200,000MWh a year, enough to power over 50,000 homes.
This latest PPA takes Statkraft investment in the UK clean energy infrastructure to close to £1.5bn, providing underpinning to over 6GW of new-build renewables generation through PPAs.