Positive
Project advancing - milestone achieved
High Impact
Major milestone or critical setback
On 22 April 2009, DONG Energy announced that it had decided to build the Walney II offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea and, on the back of the UK government’s decision to increase offshore wind support to 2 Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) per MWh, it now had the foundation to commence construction of both Walney I and Walney II. Walney II is described as being affiliated with the Walney I offshore wind farm, for which planning had already been completed, and CEO Anders Eldrup stated that with the 2 ROCs the company could now begin construction of Walney I and II. In the same announcement, DONG Energy gave an expected total investment for the two phases combined of DKK 9.7 billion, indicating a board-level commitment of capital sufficient to proceed into construction. The two phases together are expected to have a capacity of 367 MW and comprise 102 Siemens turbines supplied under what DONG Energy called the world’s largest offshore wind turbine contract at the time. The Walney projects are to be located in the Irish Sea, 15 km off the north‑west coast of England, as the first stages of a broader development of up to 600 MW at the site, with Walney I planned for completion at the beginning of 2011 and Walney II in 2012. A later announcement in December 2009 confirmed that Walney, the combined 367 MW project, “is being built” and detailed its construction cost, reinforcing that the April 2009 decision and associated investment commitment had moved the project, including Walney 1, firmly into the construction and execution phase with funding arrangements in place.