Atlantic Array
Sites
November 2013 announcement In November 2013 The Crown Estate agreed to RWE Innogy’s request to terminate the agreement for the Bristol Channel Zone and to surrender the option for the Atlantic Array project. |
Background
In June 2008, The Crown Estate, which manages the sea bed around the UK, launched the third round of its leasing programme for the delivery of up to 25 gigawatts by 2020 of new generation capacity from offshore wind.
We submitted a bid to The Crown Estate for the Bristol Channel Zone. Our bid was successful and we were awarded the development rights for the zone which is located in the outer Bristol Channel.
Project
In consultation with a range of statutory bodies, we conducted initial assessments to learn more about the site. We also carried out public consultation on the proposed wind farm, known as Atlantic Array . In June 2013 we submitted an application to the Planning Inspectorate for the proposed wind farmwith the capacity to generate up to 1,200 megawatts of renewable energy.
Key statistics
| Number of wind turbines | Up to 240 |
| Installed capacity of the project | Up to 1,200 megawatts (MW) |
| Maximum height of turbines | The maximum height would have been 220 metres to the tip of the blade |
| Number of average homes supplied | The maximum annual electricity expected to be generated from the wind farm site would have been equivalent to the approximate domestic needs of up to 900,000 average UK households1 |
Footnote
1Energy predicted to be generated by the proposal is derived using long term wind speeds calculated by meteorological models seeded with historical weather data obtained from satellite, surface-based and airborne measurement systems. This enables a calculation to be made to estimate the average annual energy production for the site based on 240 turbines each of rated capacity 5 MW. The energy capture predicted and hence derived homes equivalent or emissions savings figures may change as further data are gathered.
Equivalent homes supplied is based on an annual electricity consumption per home of 4700 kWh. This figure is supported by recent domestic electricity consumption data available from The Digest of UK Energy Statistics and household estimates and projections from the UK Statistics Authority.