4C is now TGS

We are excited to announce a significant milestone in 4C Offshore's journey. Our integration into the TGS family marks the beginning of a new era in offshore wind market intelligence.

Learn what this means for you!

Kincardine up and running

By: Bridget Randall-Smith 30/10/2018 4C Offshore

General Turbines Windfarms

Developers of the Kincardine offshore wind farm can breathe a sigh of relief as the project begun exporting power before the Renewables Obligation Certificates deadline (October 2018).

According sources first power from the 2MW turbine was achieved on the 18th September and has now been fully commissioned.

Pilot Offshore Renewables made the decision to initially just install the 2MW turbine with a semi-submersible WindFloat foundation in an effort to meet the RO deadline. The remaining turbines are due to be installed in 2019 and 2020 bringing the project capacity up to 50MW.

Last month Scottish Ministers approved the request for the removal of the turbine capacity limit to enable the installation of more powerful turbines. The developers, Cobra Group, have since confirmed that it intends on installing five 9.5MW turbines at the site.

Cobra Group plans to replicate Kincardine on a site that it acquired in January in Taiwan from Eolfi. It is seeking permits from the local environmental authorities, plant by plant (500 to 500 MW) and stated it will not start investing until it has partners, such as investment funds and utilities.

Kincardine is the only one of the three Scottish floating projects to meet the RO deadline. The developers of the Dounreay Tri and Forthwind projects have encountered various funding issues and faced administration. Earlier this year the UK offshore wind industry began lobbying for an 18-month extension to the RO deadline so that the remaining two floating projects could advance to the construction phase.

According to Hexicon, the developer of Dounreay Tri, ‘unfortunately no extension has been achieved at this stage’. Hexicon stated that ‘the project is on hold but there is a strong commitment from key suppliers to re-start the project. We will try to re-start at the soonest possible time, but this will need a bit of work, e.g. aligning a new investor.'

The Scottish Government is still keen to pursue floating wind power and is working on publishing a new Sectoral Marine Plan as well as opening new lease sites. In the coming weeks the Crown Estate will be publishing a summary of the feedback received during the initial consultation period.

For more information on floating offshore wind developments worldwide, click here. Alternatively, you can view projects worldwide on 4C Offshore's Interactive Map.

Premium

4C Offshore Premium, our most popular subscription, gives you full access to use the 4C Offshore WebApp which includes exclusive offshore wind, transmission and vessel reports, news and downloads.

Request a 30 minute Demo

Kincardine up and running

Back to News

Trending News!