Off Shore Wind in trouble in UK?

[quokka]

The next phase of the London array has been cancelled, purportedly because of problems with migratory birds.

Migrating birds halt expansion of London Array

This seems to be a continuation of the pattern developing over the last few months of cancellation of major off shore wind projects.

Race Bank, the Argyll Array and the Atlantic Array have all been abandoned by Centrica, Scottish Power and RWE respectively.

I would guess that the strike prices on offer from the UK government are not high enough to make off shore wind attractive at this time. Hinkley C is looking like a good deal right now at about 9 p/kWh.

[David B. Benson]

May well also be having difficulties in Germany. Check Der Spiegel.

[trag]

Is it the government or the energy companies doing the cancelling? It would be nice to think that the British government came to its senses, did the math, and considered the nature and requirements of grid reliability, then decided to drop wind without having a big public argument.

[quokka]

It is the energy companies - the project developers - that are cancelling the projects. There have been some engineering issues too as I understand it with at least one of the sites. Which perhaps goes to show that just because the wind is blowing somewhere, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good site for an off shore wind farm.