Fid Financial Close

On 30 January 2013, DONG Energy announced that it had decided to build the Westermost Rough offshore wind farm in the North Sea off the British east coast, marking the project’s Final Investment Decision (FID). The company stated that construction of the wind farm would represent a total investment of approximately EUR 1 billion, explicitly including the construction of the associated transmission assets. In line with UK regulatory requirements, DONG Energy indicated that these transmission assets would be sold to an offshore transmission operator once the wind farm entered operation. This commitment signalled that full funding had been secured and that the project was cleared to move from development into the construction phase. The announcement confirmed that Westermost Rough would comprise 35 Siemens Wind Power turbines rated at 6.0 MW each, giving a total installed capacity of 210 MW and an expected output equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of almost 210,000 British households. DONG Energy presented the project as the first large-scale deployment of Siemens’ 6 MW turbine, building on prior testing at Gunfleet Sands 3 and at Danish test centres Østerild and Høvsøre. The company emphasised that the project’s size and location made it well suited to advancing its strategy of reducing the cost of offshore wind. DONG Energy also outlined the expected schedule enabled by this investment decision. Offshore construction was planned to begin in the first half of 2014, with full commissioning of the wind farm anticipated in the first half of 2015. This timeline underscored the role of the FID in locking in both capital commitments and a clear delivery programme for the project.