Belgium's Storm building PPA-backed wind farm for ArcelorMittal

Belgian wind farm developer Storm on Tuesday said that it will build an 18-MW wind power project for steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal SA (AMS:MT) at its property in the Port of Ghent.

The project will be Belgium's first subsidy-free wind farm as it will not operate under the system of green power certificates. Rather, ArcelorMittal will procure the wind farm’s entire output at a fixed tariff via a power purchase agreement (PPA), Storm said.

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According to the developer, ArcelorMittal secured a price cheaper than the current wholesale tariff for “grey electricity”, which was EUR 61.83 (USD 74.95) per MWh in the year-ahead market at close of business on June 8, 2021.

The wind farm will consist of three units of 6-MW turbines with a rotor diameter of 162 metres and a tip height of up to 230 metres, said to be the largest wind turbines in Belgium.

Storm expects the machines to produce over 45,000 MWh of power per year for ArcelorMittal’s production site in Ghent.

The construction site was officially opened on Tuesday. The turbines will be erected by the end of the year, while commissioning is scheduled for the spring of 2022.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.212)