´Business as usual' for wind industry as London Array consortium regroups

BWEA, the UK wind & marine renewables industry trade association, today acknowledged Shell's announcement on selling its stake in the London Array as part and parcel of developing large scale projects.

'This is business as usual' said Maria McCaffery, BWEA Chief Executive. 'Consortia come together to deliver large scale wind farms and then often re-group at various stages of project development, for instance at the planning stage, or once the bids from subcontractors come in. This is common practice in the wind industry and has happened many times already both offshore and onshore.'

The UK wind industry remains confident that the economics of delivering a new generation of offshore wind farms remains sound. With renewables share prices climbing fast and project valuations reaching new records the wind industry is seeing investor interest in the sector reach all time highs.

McCaffery added "While it's easy to understand the frustration from the other scheme partners at the delay this announcement will cause, the fundamentals of the project and the wider industry haven't changed. We expect to see a great deal of industry interest in taking over Shell's share in the London Array."