Simon Gray, CEO of the East of England Energy Group, is sure another developer will take over the Galloper Wind farm project after RWE s announcement on 10th October that it is abandoning the project.
RWE claimed their exit was due to the tight time scales available. The ability to secure financing whilst still achieving accreditation under the Renewable Obligation was viewed as an unacceptable balance of risk and reward.
RWE had previously agreed exit arrangements with SSE after they announced back in March that they too wanted to pull out of the Galloper development.
Prior to the delays caused by the current Government, that were incurred whilst it developed its Electricity Market Reform and subsequent Contracts for difference and Levy control framework, the then developer had anticipated a completion date this year.
After speaking to the BBC Simon Gray spoke to 4C Offshore stating "it is (Galloper) an attractive proposition with shallow water, planning consents agreed etc and that the recent investment from Masdar in Dudgeon shows that external foreign investment is available.
London Array had a similar experience when Shell announced that they were pulling out and industry thought the project was dead only for other investors to pitch up.
It is also worth reinforcing that the East of England’s role in energy production is significant due to the regions unique mix of nuclear, renewables and gas given the fire at Didcot last weekend. It was "lucky" that the fire happened on a Sunday, during a comparative warm spell, when energy usage was at a low point and with Sizewell B shut for planned maintenance it meant that the margin between available supply and demand has never been tighter. "
With last nights news regarding the latest EU agreements on carbon reduction have just been agreed projects such as Galloper are essential if we are to meet these new obligations so government will have to create the conditions in which offshore wind has the support it needs to ensure the UK has the generation capacity to keep the nations lights on whatever disasters happen, unplanned outages and severe weather conditions.
I cannot emphasise enough the importance of ensuring Government gives more confidence to the supply chain for investing in the development of offshore renewables if we are to maximise the benefit to UK PLC in terms of security
of supply, job creation and UK content in major strategic energy developments.
The interview was trying to give some much needed confidence in a period of great insecurity at present. We need to keep a level head and put a strong message out that it is business as usual and we still have it all to play for.
Should any organisation now choose to step in and take up the project the clock is ticking - with Cfd s not an option, it would be a race to complete construction and generating electricity before the anticipated completion date in Q1 of 2018.
About East of England Energy Group
The East of England Energy Group (EEEGR) is the industry association for energy in the East of England, representing over 390 members across the supply chain.
EEEGR is a non-profit, limited by guarantee organisation.
