Massive growth in Vattenfall Wind
Swedish power group Vattenfall increased its wind power generation by almost 40 percent during the first six months of the year, and nearly doubled the underlying operating income of its Wind business area.
Electricity generation increased to 3.9 TWh comparedwith 2.8 TWh in the first half of 2016, and the underlying operating income (ebit)improved to 1,051 million Swedish kronor, or about 110 million euros.
Both improvements were the result of new capacity thathas been added. New assets in operation in the first half of 2017 include theoffshore wind farm Sandbank (288 MW) in Germany and the two onshore wind farmsRay (54 MW) and Pen y Cymoedd (228 MW) in the UK, the Swedish state-ownedcompany said in its first-half report.
In May the finalinvestment decision was taken for the Dutch onshore windfarm Slufterdam (29MW). Preparations to start construction are in full swing, and the firstcontracts with suppliers have been signed.
The last sectionof the onshore wind farm Pen y Cymoedd (228 MW) in Wales, with 76 turbines, washanded over from Siemens to Vattenfall. Vattenfall’s biggest onshore wind farmin the UK started operating at full capacity beginning of May, 38 months afterconstruction started.
Pen y Cymoedd is also hosting Vattenfall’s biggestbattery project in order to provide a rapid-reaction grid reliability serviceto the National Grid. Theinstallation programme is ongoing.
Vattenfall said that this project is further proof ofVattenfall’s contribution to a smart transition to a fossil-free Britain andEurope.
Vattenfall also received positive feedback in the Netherlandson the request for SDE+ support (Stimulation of Sustainable Energy Production) forthe two onshore projects Harlingfleet and Moerdijk as well as for the twophotovoltaic (PV) projects Hemweg and Emshaven.
In addition to this, Vattenfall also sees goodprogress in its projects under construction, Aberdeen in the UK and Horns RevIII in Denmark. Both projects are progressing according to plan.
After extensive preparations during the secondquarter, the Wind Business Area started to work in a new organisational set-upin July that takes the different market conditions into account.
“The organisation will now operate in three businessunits, namely Offshore, Onshore and Photovoltaic & Battery. The businessunits will cover the entire value chain of their respective business and willoperate in a very agile and market-specific approach,” Vattenfall said.
(Vilkår)