Ørsted In Talks To Sell Half Of Huge UK Wind Farm To Apollo
The title of this post, is the same as that as this article in The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
The US investment giant is eyeing a 50 per cent stake in the Danish energy company’s £8.5 billion Hornsea 3 project off the Yorkshire coast
These are the first three paragraphs, which add more detail.
An American investment giant is negotiating a deal to buy half of what will be the world’s largest off-shore wind farm off the coast of Yorkshire from the troubled Danish energy company Ørsted.
New York-based Apollo, which oversees assets of about $840 billion, is in talks with Ørsted about acquiring a 50 per cent stake in Hornsea 3, an £8.5 billion project that started construction in 2023 and will be capable of powering more than three million UK homes.
A transaction would be a boost for Orsted, which has come under pressure in recent months from rising costs and a backlash against renewables in the United States by President Trump. Orsted started the process of selling a stake in Hornsea 3 in 2024 and said last month that it had an unnamed preferred bidder for the asset, which the Financial Times first reported was Apollo.
I have written several times about Ørstedregularly building a large wind farm and then selling it, so they must be doing something right.
In World’s Largest Wind Farm Attracts Huge Backing From Insurance Giant, I wrote about how Aviva bought Hornsea 1 from Ørsted.
One of the guys at Aviva explained that these sort of investments gave the right sort of cash flow to fund insurance risks and pensions.
Now that Trump has attempted to give his kiss of death to wind power in the United States, will US funds be looking for quality investments like Hornsea 3 in the UK and other large wind farms in France, Germany, Norway, Japan and Korea?
Already, Blackrock are investing billions to build a massive data centre at Blyth, where there are Gigawatts of offshore wind power and an interconnector to Norway, so that UK and Norwegian wind can be backed up by UK nuclear and Norwegian hydropower.
Highview Power And Ørsted
I wrote Highview Power, Ørsted Find Value In Integrating Offshore Wind With Liquid Air Energy Storage in November 2023.
I would have thought, that by now a battery would have been announced in one of Ørsted’s many projects.
I asked Google AI if Highview Power and Ørsted were still talking about liquid air energy storage and received this reply.
Yes, Highview Power and Ørsted are still actively involved in Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES), having completed a joint study in late 2023 on combining LAES with offshore wind to benefit the UK grid, and the findings were presented to the government for its long-duration energy storage (LDES) consultation. They believe LAES can reduce wind curtailment, increase energy productivity, and support grid resilience, with potential projects aligned with offshore wind farm timelines.
Perhap’s Ørsted are getting their finances aorted first?
Conclusion
The Times They Are A-Changing!
Cloiche Onshore Wind Farm
This document from the Department of Business, Industry and Industrial Strategy lists all the Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6 results for the supply of zero-carbon electricity.
The largest onshore wind farm in the Allocation Round, is the Cloiche wind farm, which has this web page,which is entitled Onshore Wind Projects , on the SSE Renewables web site.
It is the only project on the page and these two paragraphs describe its location and capacity.
The proposed 29 turbine Cloiche Wind Farm is located on the Glendoe and Garrogie Estates, adjacent to the operational Stronelairg Wind Farm and Glendoe Hydroelectric Scheme and approximately 11 kilometres (km) to the south-east of Fort Augustus in the Great Glen, in the Monadhliath mountain range.
It is anticipated that the wind farm will generate approximately 130.5MW.
This Google Map shows the location.
Between the village of Fort Augustus and the Stronelairg wind farm, lies the Southern end of Loch Ness.
In the South-East corner of the map, there is a large lake, which is shown in more detail in this Google Map.
This is the Glendoe Reservoir for the Glendoe Hydro Scheme, that was built in the early years of this century, by damming the River Tarff.
The dam is clearly visible at the Western end of the Reservoir.
The Glendoe Hydro Scheme was opened in 2009 and has a generation capacity of 106.5 MW.
The planning and building of the scheme are described in this Wikipedia entry and the entry is well worth a read.
Stronelairg Wind Farm
Stronelairg wind farm, Cloiche wind farm and the Glendoe Hydro Scheme are all projects, that were or will be developed by SSE Renewables.
Stronelairg wind farm has 66 turbines and a total installed capacity of 228 MW.
It has a web page on the SSE Renewables web site.
These two paragraphs describe the location of Stronelairg wind farm.
Stronelairg sits at an elevation of around 600m above sea level in the Moadhliath Mountain range making it one of our windiest wind farms.
It sits within a natural bowl on a plateau, set well back from Loch Ness meaning that no turbines are visible from the main tourist routes in the area. Stronelairg is also located adjacent to our 100MW Glendoe hydro scheme and so the construction teams were able to use the hydro infrastructure as do our operational teams now.
Stronelairg wind farm appears tobe a powerful asset, hidden in the mountains.
Three Co-located Assets
As Cloche wind farm, will be adjacent to the operational Stronelairg Wind Farm and Glendoe Hydroelectric Scheme, these three energy producing assets, will be close together.
- Cloiche wind farm – 130.5 MW
- Stronelairg wind farm – 228 MW
- Glendoe Hydroelectric Scheme – 106.5 MW
Note.
- This is a total power of 465 MW.
- This would be equivalent to a medium-sized gas-fired power station.
- All three assets could use the same grid grid connection and other facilities.
It could be considered a 358.5 MW wind farm, backed by a 106.5 MW hydro power station.
When there is a shortage of wind, the Glendoe Hydroelectric Scheme could step in, if required.
Conclusion
Onshore wind, backed up by hydroelectric schemes would appear to be a good way to create reliable hybrid power stations.
Do any other schemes in Allocation Round 6, involve combining onshore wind with existing hydro schemes?
Scotland’s 25 GWh Energy Storage Arriving By Stealth
In SSE Unveils Redevelopment Plans For Sloy Hydro-Electric Power Station, I introduced SSE Renewable’s plan to convert the UK’s largest hydro-electric power station into a pumped storage hydroelectric station, that can store 25 GWh of electricity and generate 152.5 MW of electricity.
After a public consultation in July, which unfortunately, I was unable to get to, SSE have now published a comprehensive document, which details their plans.
These are some points from the document.
- There will be no increase in the generating capacity of 152.5 MW, which is about half the size of a gas-fired power station.
- SSE designed a similar scheme for Sloy in 2009.
- Pumped storage systems need a lot of water. The Loch Sloy scheme has Loch Lomond.
- The development of pumped storage at Sloy would only require construction work to be carried out in the grounds of the existing power station.
- No permanent new works would be required at Sloy Dam or outside of the existing station boundary.
- A new above ground structure would be required which would contain a main hall with vehicular access, laydown areas, an overhead travelling crane, electrical switchgear and control systems.
- A new underground pump hall would be required to house two pumps. This would link to the intake structure and would be approximately 20m below the existing ground level.
- The existing tailrace to Loch Lomond, will be used to bring water to the pumps.
- Construction could start in 2025, with completion in 2027.
This redevelopment is a much less complex construction project, than building the original power station in the 1950s.
It also looks like the construction will not cause much disruption in the local area.
Hence my view, that this storage is arriving by stealth and won’t be noticed by those passing the power station.
After reading this SSE document, I wonder how many similar 1950s hydroelectric power stations have been upgraded to pumped storage stations in the last few years.
Also, if their Sloy scheme is successful, will SSE be looking for other hydroelectric power stations to convert to pumped storage?
This article on renews.biz is entitled Vattenfall Plans To Build 730MW Of Swedish Hydro Power, where this is a paragraph.
Vattenfall is also conducting a pilot study to investigate reinstating the Juktan power station on the Storjuktan lake adjacent to the Umeälven river in Västerbotten, to a pumped storage plant with a capacity of up to 380MW.
Note.
- Juktan power station was built as a pumped storage station and converted to a standard one.
- It has a web page.
- As the paragraph says it could be converted back!
So other companies and countries are thinking the same way!
Strathclyde University’s Prediction
This page on the Strathclyde University web site, gives these figures in GWh for the possible amounts of pumped storage that can be added to existing schemes.
- Errochty – 16
- Glasgarnock – 23
- Luichart – 38
- Clunie – 40
- Fannich – 70
- Rannoch – 41
- Fasnakyle – 78
- Tummel – 38
- Ben Lawers – 12
- Nant – 48
- Invermoriston – 22
- Invergarry – 41
- Quoich – 27
- Sloy – 20
That is a total of 514 GWh.
These figures must give SSE food for thought.
These new schemes are also being planned.
- Balliemeanoch – 1.5GW/45 GWh
- Coire Glas – 1.5 GW/30 GWh
- Corrievarkie – 600 MW/14.5 GWh
- Fearna – 1.8 GW/37 GWh
- Loch Earba – 900 MW/33 GWh
- Loch Kemp – 300 MW/9 GWh
- Loch Na Cathrach/Red John – 450 MW/2.8 GWh
These could bring the potential pumped storage in Scotland to 685.3 GWh.
How Britain’s Biggest Natural Battery Can Help Deliver Net Zero
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in the New Statesman.
This is the sub-heading.
SSE wants to double the nation’s flexible electricity storage capacity.
These two paragraphs introduce the article.
After previous delays and false starts, governments and businesses across the world are pushing towards the common goal of net zero. The energy sector is arguably the area with the biggest responsibility to work towards this target, and there is no time for complacency.
Ensuring clean, renewable energy sources such as hydrogen, wind and solar power become a larger part of the grid will be critical for the sector in its push towards net zero. A key facet of the clean energy drive will be having sufficient storage for each renewable power source kept in reserve, to be used as and when required as a crucial back-up mechanism. In last spring’s energy security review the government outlined its commitment to support long duration storage projects.
It is certainly very comprehensive and a must read.
This sentence illustrates the financial problem with pumped storage.
SSE is calling on the UK government to help it commit to building the Coire Glas storage facility by providing one simple policy decision that will send a clear signal as to how government intends to support the deployment of long duration electricity storage. The project doesn’t need subsidising, SSE states, but it would benefit from revenue stabilisation, and clarity on such support sooner rather than later.
Hopefully, this article will help get the required support.
Coire Glas
Coire Glas will have an output of 1500 MW and a storage capability of 30 GWh.
There is more information at the Coire Glas web site.
The project could be up and running by the early 2030s.
Loch Sloy Pumped Storage
The article also mentions the Loch Sloy Pumped Storage scheme, that has been recently announced by SSE.
I wrote about this 25 GWh scheme in SSE Unveils Redevelopment Plans For Sloy Hydro-Electric Power Station.
SSE haven’t announced much more about this scheme and it is not mentioned on the Sloy/Awe web site.
Electrolyser System To Linde For Green Hydrogen Production In Niagara Falls, New York
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Cummins.
This is the first paragraph.
Cummins Inc. will supply a 35-megawatt (MW) proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer system for Linde’s new hydrogen production plant in Niagara Falls, New York. Once commissioned, Cummins’ electrolyzer system will power Linde’s largest green hydrogen plant in the U.S., marking significant progress in moving the green hydrogen economy forward.
Note.
- The electrolyser will be powered by hydroelectricity.
- Linde have a strategic investment in iTM Power, who are a British manufacturer of electrolysers.
- ITM Linde Electrolysis is a joint venture between iTM Power and Linde.
Why did Linde choose Cummins over iTM Power?
Is it down to cost, delivery, politics or quality?
The Anonymous Widower 