April 30, 2016

Europe Awards Its Largest Single Contract for Offshore Wind Turbines

Scottish Power awards $1.2 billion contract for offshore wind turbines, as Scotland pushes toward 100% renewable power by 2020.

By Melissa C. Lott

By *HaraldPettersen*/*Statoil* *(CC2.0)*

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

This month, Scottish Power awarded Europe’s largest single contract for offshore wind turbines to Siemens.

The $1.2 billion contract includes the building and servicing of 102 offshore wind turbines. Each of these turbines will be capable of generating 7 Megawatts (MW) of power and will be installed in the East Anglia ONE wind farm off the coast of Norfolk between 2019-2020.

This award comes just one month after Scotland’s last coal-fired power plant was taken out of service as the country moves toward supplying 100% of its electricity demand using renewables by 2020. In 2015, more than half (57.7%) of electricity consumed in Scotland was produced using renewables, up from 32% in 2013.

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*CREDIT: THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT.* *“ENERGY IN SCOTLAND 2015*"

According to Reuters, Scottish Power has been guaranteed a price of £119 ($174) per megawatt hour for electricity produced at the wind farm under a government program (“contracts-for-difference scheme”) designed to incentivize low-carbon power production.

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