Anglo-American company Hecate Independent Power (HIP) has unveiled plans to build up to 10GW of fixed and floating offshore wind in the North Atlantic to be connected to the UK by long-length, subsea power cables.
HIP said it has has lodged four connection applications with National Grid for an initial 4GW of grid connections to the UK’s 400kV electricity transmission system across four connection sites.
The company said each wind farm – or ‘pod’ – will be in a different North Atlantic location, with each pod consisting of 1GW of turbines and having its own dedicated cable linked to the UK.
It added that full dispatch of the HIP offshore wind pods will be under the exclusive control of the UK electricity system operator, making HIP Atlantic Britain’s first captive wind farm in overseas territorial waters.
HIP Atlantic’s initial 2GW of generation capacity, targeted to be off the southern and eastern coasts of Iceland, is expected to be commissioned in early 2025, the company said. Such a timeline would be much faster than the time it normally takes to develop offshore wind projects, according to industry sources.
HIP said its planned offshore wind pods in the North Atlantic will all be installed in a different meteorological catchment area from current North Sea and Irish Sea wind farms and so its renewable electricity can be supplied at times when existing British projects are becalmed.
“This diversity of wind source provides a geographical portfolio effect to protect the UK transmission grid from too much offshore wind capacity installed in just one region,” it said.
The total project cost is estimated at £21bn (€24bn) with the initial 2GW creating 15,000 new jobs in the UK, HIP said.
The cables will be built at a new £200m factory earmarked for an unnamed port in the north-east of England, it added.
Iceland will also be a beneficiary, with an initial Icelandic investment for the first 2GW pilot phase of the project expected to be £2.9m in 2021 rising to an additional £144m through 2025, HIP said.
Up to 500 new jobs located in southern and eastern Iceland are associated with the 2GW pilot phase, the company added.
HIP is a joint venture comprised of Hecate Wind, a wholly-owned subsidiary of US outfit Hecate Holdings, and Independent Power Corporation, a UK developer of conventional power plants internationally.
HIP chairman Tony Baldry said: “HIP Atlantic fulfils the Prime Minister’s vision of attracting investment and job creation in the North of England as part of this country’s ambitious policy to make Britain the world leader in offshore wind energy.
“We will stretch the zone of British-operated wind generation outside of our traditional territorial waters, pushing the boundaries of existing cable technology to generate over 1000kms from our grid landfall points throughout England.”