Dong unveils plans for giant 400MW offshore wind farm

Denmark's position as one of the world's leading wind energy markets was underlined this week, when utility Dong Energy announced plans for a 400MW offshore wind farm and turbine manufacturer Vestas confirmed that it has secured a flurry of new orders in the past few days.

State-owned energy firm Dong confirmed yesterday that it has bid for the rights to build the proposed 400MW offshore wind farm off the Danish island of Anholt at an estimated cost of 10bn Danish Crowns ($1.8bn).

According to Bloomberg reports, Dong is in the box seat to secure the deal after it was the only wind park developer to meet a Danish government deadline to bid for the project. A final decision is now expected from the Danish Energy Agency on 19 April.

The company said that if its bid is successful it expects to begin supplying power from the facility by 2012, with the entire project scheduled for completion in 2013. Overall the wind farm will provide power to around 400,000 homes.

Dong is fast establishing itself as a global leader in the development of large-scale wind farms. It already operates the largest offshore facility in the form of the 209MW Horns Rev 2 site in the North Sea, and is part of the consortium to build the 630MW London Array in the Thames Estuary.

Anders Eldrup, chief executive of Dong Energy, said in a statement that the new Anholt would further strengthen the company's position in the market. "Dong Energy has built half of the largest offshore wind farms in the world, making us one of the market leaders within this segment," he said. "Therefore, we found it natural to bid for Anholt offshore wind farm."

The move came as Denmark-based Vestas, the world's largest manufacturer of wind turbines, announced a flurry of new deals highlighting the apparent success of its global expansion plans.

The company confirmed yesterday that is has signed a deal in Turkey to deliver 31 of its V90-3MW wind turbines with a combined capacity of 93MW to the country's Sahres project. Work on the project, which is being undertaken by Turkish firm Galata Wind Energy, is expected to begin later this year with completion scheduled for mid-2011.

That announcement came a day after Vestas confirmed that a major deal in China has been extended and that the company will now deliver turbines totaling 100MW of capacity to Heilongjiang province. Last week, Vestas announced that it had received an order for 50MW of turbines from an undisclosed customer in Heilongjiang province, before this week revealing that the same customer had ordered a further 50MW to support the second phase of the project.

The deal will go some way towards allaying fears that China's government was quietly introducing "Buy Chinese" policy for domestic renewable energy projects that would seek to exclude foreign firms. However, details around the project remain sketchy, with Vestas releasing a statement claiming that "at the customer’s request, further details about the project's ownership cannot be disclosed".

Meanwhile, the company also announced last week that it has secured its largest single order in Australia after the Collgar project in Western Australia ordered 111 of the company's V90-1.8/2.0 MW.