PRESS RELEASE, September 17th 2008

Thanet Offshore Wind Limited (TOW) today announced that it has signed a long term lease with Thanet District Council, owners of the Port of Ramsgate, for its Operations and Maintenance (O&M) base to be situated at Ramsgate. The commitment runs for up to 40 years and will provide regular income for the Port and some employment opportunities for the area. This is the latest in a series of commitments made by TOW that mark the move to the construction phase of the project.

TOW will take over use of the existing Military Road Warehouse and will build a new office facility alongside this over the next year to accommodate the approx 25 strong team of engineers and technicians that will operate the wind farm. A new dedicated pontoon will also be placed in the Port to allow safe and efficient access to the specialist vessels that will take the O&M crew to the wind farm site.

In addition to the O&M facilities, TOW is currently using existing office space in the Port and will use other areas to support the offshore construction elements of the project over the next 18 months. These activities will build up in the near future ahead of the start of foundation installation work offshore in late 2008. The activity levels will increase further in Spring 2009 when turbine installation and offshore cabling works will start.

Agreements to allow the connection of the project to the electricity network were signed in 2007 and some elements of the onshore construction work commenced at Richborough in January 2008 where the onshore substation for the project is being built.

TOW are attempting to minimise any inconvenience the construction work may cause to local residents and apologises in advance for any disruption caused by the following;

1. increased traffic levels on local roads and in the Port of Ramsgate over the next 18 months;
2. the roadworks needed for cable installation along the A256 between Richborough and Cliffsend starting later this month for approximately 4 months; and
3. possible increase in noise levels around the Port and occasionally, and under certain weather conditions, along the coast over the next 12 months

 

For further details; www.thanetoffshorewind.com

Contact ;            Mark Petterson, Project Director            01789 471091

 

Notes

 

1. The Thanet Offshore Wind project is one of 15 schemes announced by the Crown Estate in January 2004 as a second Round of UK offshore wind projects. Other ‘Round 2’ projects being proposed in the Thames area by other companies are the London Array and Greater Gabbard developments. The Kentish Flats wind farm off Herne Bay/Whitstable, commissioned in 2005, was part of the first Round of demonstrator wind farm projects launched by the Crown Estate in early 2001.

1. TOW received all of the consent required to construct and operate the scheme in December 2006, the first UK ‘Round 2’ project to achieve this milestone.  It will now be the first industrial scale offshore wind farm to be built in the UK and is targeted to commence power generation in mid 2009 when it will become the largest operational offshore wind farm anywhere in the World – the first time a single UK project will be able to claim this title.

 

1. The connection of Thanet’s 300MW of capacity in 2009 will boost UK offshore wind capacity by more than 30% and will produce on average enough electricity to supply 240,000 homes with green electricity.

1. Money management fund Christofferson, Robb & Company (CRC) purchased TOW in September 2007 and has arranged all the funding required for the project. Warwick Energy Limited (WEL), the original developer of the scheme, together with BOMEL and Garrad Hassan project manage the Thanet development.