UK - Statkraft to invest £400m in Scots wind farm plan

Statkraft, Europe's largest generator of renewable energy, has said it is ready to invest more than £400m in Scotland. The Norwegian state-owned group is involved in seven onshore wind farm projects in the UK, five of them in Scotland, and is part of the Forewind consortium with Scottish & Southern Energy bidding to generate wind power offshore. It is also backing Atlantis, the venture aiming to harness tidal power in the Pentland Firth.

Earlier this year, as the likes of BP, Shell and Iberdrola were retreating from the sector, Statkraft bought a 50% stake with Norwegian oil group Statoil Hydro in Sheringham Shoal, a £1bn wind farm now under construction off the Norfolk coast. Only one of the five Scottish onshore wind farms is under way, a 60-megawatt site at Carraig Gheal in Argyll. Two sites in Caithness and others in Lanarkshire and Morayshire totalling more than 230 megawatts are all in the planning pipeline.

The group's UK managing director Elvind Torblaa said: "Statkraft is not here to speculate we are here to develop, build, operate and sell power. That is our business model, we are in the value chain all the way, we have a long-term perspective." On grid development and planning, Torblaa said: "We would like to see a one-stop shop, with both coordinated by the government and not by the developer, because that creates too much risk and unnecessary burden."

He added: "Like any investor and long-term player we want predictability and transparency we would like to understand how and when (the grid) is going to be resolved so we can safeguard our investments." It would also welcome "more cooperation from the consenting authorities".

He admitted that the UK wind portfolio of 600 megawatts was "not enormous" - Statkraft has 2000 megawatts proposed in Norway and 1500 in Sweden - but said: "We are new in this country what we want to do is learn more about the power market and try to become more fully-fledged."

He said Statkraft had entered the German market in 1998 and had since become a successful power trading business, owning gas and hydro generation. "We have entered the UK a little bit differently."

Statkraft aimed to become a "swing" supplier in Europe, whilst targeting south- eastern Europe for its original specialism of hydro power.

For more information please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net