Vattenfall blows into UK with AMEC wind takeover

Swedish energy giant Vattenfall has this week underlined its commitment to expanding its presence in the UK's renewable energy market, shelling out £126.6m in cash to acquire the wind energy operations of power conglomerate AMEC.

The deal sees Vattenfall take over all of AMEC Wind Energy Limited operations, giving it ownership of nine projects that are under construction or have gained planning permissions with a combined capacity of 547MW.

Currently, Vattenfall's only presence in the UK's wind sector is the Kentish Flats offshore wind farm, which boasts a capacity of 90MW.

"The deal increases our capacity in the UK more than five-fold and gives us a really good base from which to bid for the Round III offshore wind farm contracts," explained Ingegerd Bills, communications manager for Vattenfall Wind Power. "We want to grow in the UK and will also be working with AMEC to identify new sites… we want to do 3,000TW/h of wind in the UK."

AMEC had reportedly been seeking to offload the unit since its planning application for a 181 turbine wind farm on the island of Lewis was rejected – a move that critics claim represented a major blow to the company’s confidence in the wind sector.

The AMEC deal follows Vattenfall's recent commitment to acquire Eclipse Energy, which is currently developing several wind projects in the UK with the potential of over 200 MW from renewable energy, including the world's first combined wind and gas turbine Ormonde project in Scotland.

The deals were welcomed by Nick Medic of the British Wind Energy Association who argued that Vattenfall's financial commitment underlined the continued attractiveness of wind projects.

"Vattenfall's spending spree shows that the UK is perceived as an attractive location for energy capital," he said. "This is an international company with liquid assets and it is targeting the UK as it represents good growth prospects. "