Germany - E.ON announces plans to build another wind farm off the UK coast

E.ON is continuing to enhance its activities in renewables. The proposed Humber Gateway Offshore Wind Farm would be located eight kilometers off the Yorkshire coast. Around 80 turbines would generate up to 300MW of clean, green energy, enough to power up to 200,000 homes. The planning process for this technically complex project is starting with a series of consultation meetings with representatives from the local fishing industry and local coastline communities. This step will safeguard that the interests of residents and the environment are considered early in the planning phase.

E.ON is already operating 20 onshore and offshore wind parks in the UK. Further parks in addition to the Humber Gateway are being planned, including the “London Array”, one of the largest offshore parks worldwide, generating 1,000MW and located in the Thames estuary. The project is being jointly developed with Shell WindEnergy and Anglo-Danish consortium Dong Energy London Array. At the beginning of August E.ON acquired the Spanish and Portuguese renewables business from the Danish company Dong Energy, which is currently generating around 260MW. The majority of which is supplied from state-of-the-art wind farms. At the same time wind farms generating around 560MW are already being planned for particularly suitable locations and are to be operational in the coming four years. E.ON is also involved in a number of highly sophisticated offshore projects off the German North Sea coast and the Baltic coast, including the first large-scale offshore wind farm in Germany called “alpha ventus”, 45 kilometers off the North Sea island of Borkum. The first turbines are to be generating power from fall next year.

E.ON is focusing its investments into renewables on wind power and bio natural gas. The objective is to dramatically increase the share of renewables in energy generation and for E.ON to establish a leading position in this business in Europe. The Group has earmarked an investment volume of around EUR 3 billion until 2010. This business is managed by the new E.ON company for Renewables and Climate Protection based in Düsseldorf.