Danish investors commit £660m to offshore wind extension

Danish pension PKA and the LEGO Group have backed DONG Energy’s Burbo Bank offshore wind farm extension with a combined £660 million ($953 million; €840 million).

The investment from PKA and the LEGO Group, a subsidiary of Danish investment company KIRKBI, gives them each a 25 percent interest in DONG’s 258-megawatt (MW) offshore wind project. DONG owns the other 50 percent of the project and is expected to begin construction in the spring of 2016, with the wind farm starting operations in 2017.

The Burbo Bank Extension, located off the coast of Liverpool, England, is an addition to the project’s current 90MW capacity. The extension will consist of 32 turbines and will be the first large-scale project to use 8MW turbines manufactured by Vestas.

DONG will continue to operate and maintain the project and will also be responsible for securing the sale and delivery of the energy Burbo Bank produces.

This is the third offshore wind partnership between DONG and PKA. In 2014, PKA acquired 24.75 percent acquisition for the 252MW Gode Wind 2 project, off the coast of Germany.

For the LEGO Group, in which KIRKBI holds 75 percent, the investment in the Burbo Bank project is its second long-term commitment to offshore wind. Its first investment in offshore wind was in 2012, for the 277MW Borkum Riffgrund 1 project.