This is bad short term news for the wind industry. According to an article in Danish paper Jyllands-Posten, a 70% increase in turbine prices since 2002 has made Scarweather Sands unprofitable. The 90 MW Round 1 Project is one of the furthest along, behind Kentish Flats (90 MW installed this year) and before Barrow (2007 construction schedule). You can bet these price hikes are for Vestas and Siemens turbines, and they are throwing off business plans for all projects in the queue--which is going to push back MW installed forecasts, and the UK hitting its RO target. Hopefully the Vestas 108 MW project in the Netherlands, and other projects in Sweden can pick up the industry slack as the UK projects return to the business model drawing board.
UPDATE
E.ON Renewables went ahead and made the postponement official, shooting for 2009 and giving reassurances the project is not totally dead. We'll be hearing more announcements like these.
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