SSE delays Dogger Bank A wind farm

The first phase of a project to build one of the world’s largest wind farms in British waters has been pushed back to the second half of next year.
Dogger Bank A, which together with its two sister wind farms will have a combined installed capacity of 3.6 gigawatts, was due for completion during the six months to the end of September.
SSE, the FTSE 100 energy group, has blamed stormy weather for further delays to the development, which had initially been expected to be finished this year. However, “project returns are not expected to be materially impacted”, the company said.
The Dogger Bank development zone will be between 125km and 290km off the east coast of Yorkshire in the North Sea.
The company said it had reached completion on the 443-megawatt Viking onshore wind farm, the Shetland subsea link, which will connect the Scottish islands to the British transmission network for the first time, and the Slough Multifuel energy-from-waste power station.
Output for the company was boosted by higher renewable energy generation during the first six months of the year, taking overall generation levels up 44 per cent to 5.3 terawatt hours. Adjusted operating profits from its thermal generation and gas storage operations are expected to be at least £200 million for the full year, compared with £818 million a year earlier. The company is due to report half year results on November 13.
Adjusted net debt is expected to be about £10 billion at the end of March after it issued a €850 million eight-year green bond during the period.
SSE is one of the largest developers of offshore wind projects in UK waters and won financial support to provide 130.5 megawatts of capacity from the Cloiche wind farm in the latest contracts-for-difference auction round, at a guaranteed price of £50.9 per megawatt hour. The project is aiming for a final investment decision next year.
Shares in SSE, one of the largest developers of offshore wind projects in UK waters, rose by 16½p, or 0.9 per cent, to close at £18.90½.