Thursday 24 May 2018

UK’s ‘first subsidy-free wind project’ reaches financial close

A wind farm claimed to be the first subsidy-free project of its kind in the UK has reached financial close.

The Withernwick II extension project in East Riding in Yorkshire will be funded solely with revenues from a power purchase agreement (PPA), according to German developer Energiekontor.

It will extend the original 18.45MW wind farm built in 2016, bringing the total capacity to 26.65MW – Senvion will be providing four turbines for the project.

Construction is due to start shortly and the site is expected to be commissioned early next year.

Peter Szabo, CEO of Energiekontor said: “The financial close of the Withernwick II project, the UK’s first profitable wind farm under pure market conditions, shows that our strategy to reduce costs by improving efficiency is bearing fruit. It also underlines our pioneering role in the quest to realise wind farms and solar parks with a lower levelized cost of electricity than fossil and nuclear alternatives.”

The UK's first subsidy-free solar farm was officially opened last year.