Statkraft inks giant offshore wind PPA with Seagreen

Norwegian state-owned utility Statkraft AS today announced that it will be buying 50% of the output of the roughly 1.1-GW Seagreen 1 offshore wind farm in Scottish waters under a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA).

UK utility SSE Plc (LON:SSE) recently took the final investment decision (FID) for the scheme, in which French oil and gas giant Total SA (EPA:FP) will acquire a 51% interest. Construction is expected to be completed in 2022/23. The park will have 114 pieces of MHI Vestas’ V164-10 MW turbines.

Statkraft’s head of long-term PPA origination, John Puddephatt, said the contract with Seagreen Wind Energy Ltd will be the largest in the company’s UK portfolio. Statkraft’s first PPA in the country was struck in 2010 and since then it has agreed more than 230 long-term offtake deals in the UK.

“As part of our project financing we required an off-taker with a strong credit rating and the ability to purchase a substantial amount of power on a long term basis. Statkraft were well suited to this role,” Mark Timmons, Seagreen Wind’s offshore mid manager, commented.

Seagreen 1 has a 15-year contract for difference (CfD) for a 454-MW portion of the capacity at a strike price of GBP 41.61 per MWh in 2012 prices with UK government-owned Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC).

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!