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Statoil to build the world’s largest wind farm at sea

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Statoil chief Eldar Sætre wants to build up on wind power as a new future on energy. Now, the company wants build the world’s largest wind farm at sea with 300 wind turbines.

 

“We want to build the world’s largest wind farm at Doggerbank, with maybe 300 wind turbines, which can create up 3,600 megawatts of energy that can power up to 3.6 million households,” says Sætre, Statoil’s boss, in an interview with VG on Sunday.

Overall, the development will represent 5 percent of power needs of the UK.. Doggerbank is located about 150 kilometers off the east coast of Yorkshire in England. The wind farm will cover 8,660 square kilometers, an area, the size of Vestfold and Akershus put together.

“We have three of the four licenses at Doggerbank and we have decided to begin the process to see if we can achieve this project,” says Sætre.

He emphasizes that they may be a little ahead before the project can be realized. Statoil has approved the project and to participate in a bidding round, but must also win in competition with other projects.

The Statoil boss says that the expertise the company has in oil and gas at sea is similar to the expertise needed for wind turbines.

“We are talking about such huge mills that they can actually be compared to a platform,” Sætre says

Statoil’s ambition is to invest 100 billion kroner in profitable renewable projects by 2030.

– “Obviously its a lot of wind but we are also looking at solar. The risk of offshore wind farms is less than the risk of oil and gas, and the costs are heavily reduced. We work out that, with renewable energy, we can have a profitable return of between 9 and 11 percent,” says Sætre.

Statoil currently operates a 25 percent return on the oil and gas projects they are building based on an oil price of $70 barrel.

 

©  NTB Scanpix / Norway Today