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ocated 130km off the Yorkshire Coast, the 3.6 GW project fnancing, with $7.5 billion secured. offshore wind project will consist of three phases – “Reaching fnancial close on the two frst phases of Dog- each at 1.2GW, and will cover an area of 1675 km2, ger Bank is a major milestone, demonstrating our commit-

L larger than Greater London. ment to proftable growth within offshore wind. The ex-

The three phases were previously known as Creyke Beck A, tensive interest from lenders underpins the attractiveness of

Creyke Beck B and Teesside A. UK offshore wind assets and confdence in SSE and Equi-

In February 2020, the UK-based SSE and Norway’s Equi- nor. As the wind farm’s future operator, we are proud to nor, which at the time owned the project at 50 percent stake take this big step forward in delivering what will be the each, decided to change the respective names to Dogger Bank backbone of a growing wind hub in the North Sea,” Pål

A, B, and C, to recognize the wind-farm-site-to-be’s connec- Eitrheim, Equinor’s executive vice president of New Energy tion to the ancient area Doggerland, which once connected Solutions, said at the time.

the UK with the mainland Europe, and which was home to The fnancial close for Dogger Bank C is expected in late a Mesolithic community who lived around 12,000 years ago. 2021.

“The area was made up of hills, marshland, wooded val- The Dogger Bank project, for which The Crown Estate leys and swampy lagoons and was home to hunter-gathers. awarded development rights for ffty years in 2010, was

The end of the last ice age brought fooding to the area, fol- granted consent as a Nationally Signifcant Infrastructure lowed by a catastrophic release of water from a glacier, remov- Project in 2015. A few years later, in 2019, the Dogger ing what was left of this land. From this ancient area today Bank then successfully secured 15-year contracts (CfDs) remains Dogger Bank, a large sandbank in a shallow area of for 3.6GW of new offshore wind energy in the UK Gov- the North Sea between 125km and 290km off the North East ernment’s auction for low carbon power in 2019. The strike coast of England,” SSE and Equinor said early in 2020, an- price will be paid for every MWh generated by the wind nouncing the name change. farms during the contract.

The CfD terms, as shared by SSE are below: • Dogger Bank A (1,200MW) with a strike price of £39.65/MWh (in 2012 prices, CPI-indexed) for deliv ery in 2023/24.

• Dogger Bank B and C (1,200MW each) with strike prices of £41.61/MWh (in 2012 prices, CP I-indexed) for delivery in 2024/25.

After the CfD contract ends, the projects will receive the market price for electricity. Each phase of the project is ex- pected to generate around 6TWh of electricity annually.

SSE and Equinor in 2020 then sanctioned the development of the frst two phases, awarding major contracts and subse- quently welcoming a new partner, Italy’s Eni, into the Dogger

Bank A and B, where SSE now owns 40, Equinor owns 40

Source: Doggerbank.com and Eni has 20 percent, for which it paid $750 million. “For Eni, entering the offshore wind market in Northern

THE UK’S RENEWABLE ENERGY AMBITIONS Europe is a great opportunity to gain further skills in the sec-

The project is seen as a centerpiece of the UK government tor thanks to the collaboration with two of the industry’s lead- ambitious goal to reach 40GW of installed offshore wind ca- ing companies, and to make a substantial contribution to the pacity by and have every home in the UK powered by offshore 2025 target of 5 GW of installed capacity from renewables, an wind by 2030. The three phases of the Dogger Bank Wind intermediate step towards the more ambitious target of zero

Farm, will deliver enough power for six million UK homes. net direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in Europe by

The Dogger Bank offshore wind development last year 2050,” said Claudio Descalzi, Chief Executive Offcer of Eni.

secured fnancing for the frst two phases, which involved The third phase is still owned 50:50 by Equinor and SSE. support from no less than 29 banks and three export credit SSE is lead operator for the development and construction agencies in what was dubbed the world largest offshore wind phases of the Dogger Bank wind farm.

March/April 2021 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 29