FREDERICIA, Denmark, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Danish energy group DONG Energy said it strengthened its offshore wind portfolio with a new service contract, after charting a course away from oil and gas.
DONG said it landed a long-term service contract for the Lincs offshore wind farm off the northeast British coast. The 270-megawatt wind farm has been in service since 2013 and the contract follows the sale from partners Centrica and Siemens of their combined 75 percent stake in the project to green British investment entities.
DONG takes over operations with its 25 percent stake.
"We're delighted to become the operations and maintenance service provider to Lincs," Jens Jackobsson, a senior vice president at DONG, said in a statement. "It will be the first time we take over operations and maintenance of an operating wind farm [that] we haven't constructed ourselves."
Related
The company said in an interim financial report released in December that its operating profit increased 7 percent, driven in part by a 19 percent increase in wind power. In late October, the company said that, in coordination with a pending initial public offering, it was moving its portfolio away from oil and gas and closer to clean-energy options like bioenergy and offshore wind.
DONG has seven offshore wind farms in various stages of construction. In September, the company announced it was installing the turbines at its Burbo Bank extension project off the British coast. At 640 feet, the turbines are the largest of their kind in the world.
The company already provides operations and maintenance services to more than a dozen offshore wind farms in Europe. In November, it opened a new office in the Asia-Pacific with ambitions to build new wind farms off the coast of Taiwan.
