European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre

The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre is being developed by Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm Ltd (AOWFL), comprising current partners Vattenfall Wind Power UK , Technip and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG).

In August 2010 AOWFL was awarded exclusive rights by The Crown Estate to develop the project in a zone off the City of Aberdeen. This innovative project has a grant award of up to forty million Euros from the European Union.

The Deployment Centre will allow offshore wind farm developers and associated supply chain companies to test new designs, prove existing products and receive independent validation and accreditation before commercial deployment.

This will reduce development risks and capital costs and provide an opportunity to test reliability and capacity in a real time, offshore environment. The project will provide electricity to the national grid and will disseminate lessons learned to the EU industry at large.

At the heart of the project is an interaction between research, testing and training facilities alongside a commercially operated, highly instrumented offshore wind farm.

Rallying call 

In May 2011, the project issued a rallying call to Europe's innovators encouraging turbine manufacturers, supply chain companies, universities and research establishments to engage and identify possible involvement on EOWDC. A Supply Chain event, supported by Scottish Enterprise took place on 27th June. Please see press release and brochure links on this page for further details.

Consent application

The EOWDC consent application was submitted to Marine Scotland on 1st August 2011 and will now be subject to the formal consultation and decision process. The application is to construct and operate a deployment centre off the coast of Aberdeen.

The application follows extensive consultation with stakeholders and studies which have seen the project significantly evolve from an offshore wind farm into a deployment centre to test and demonstrate up to 11 next generation offshore wind turbines plus other related technology.

For further information you can download the following documents:
Volume 1 - Non Technical Summary (PDF 10 MB)
Volume 2 - Environmental Statement (PDF 7 MB)
Volume 3 - Figures (PDF 76 MB)

Volume 4 is not available to download as it is too large but a DVD of the Full Environmental Statement can be requested from Vattenfall at the Hexham address:

Edwina Sleightholme, Vattenfall Business Division Renewables
Offshore Wind Projects
Bridge End, Hexham
Northumberland NE46 4NU, United Kingdom

EOWDC Public Consultation Events 2011

29^th August Peterhead, Palace Hotel 2-8pm
30^th August Newburgh, Udny Arms 2-8pm
31^st August Ellon, Kirk Centre 2-8pm
1^st September Balmedie, Whitehorse Inn 2-8pm
2^nd September Aberdeen, Doubletree Hilton (Beach) 2-8pm
(see press release issued 16/8/11 for further details)