Amec to develop North Sea wind farms

Amec, the international engineering services company, has teamed up with Centrica, the UK's largest energy supplier, to develop two large wind farms in the North Sea.

The wind farms, which will be operational by 2010, will together provide around 1,000 megawatts of electricity in total - enough for the needs of around 1.5 million people. They will be built on the Docking Shoal and Race Bank sites in the Wash area of the North Sea, under the latest round of Crown Estate licences.

Amec developed the UK's first offshore wind farm at Blyth in Northumberland and took Lynn, another major offshore wind farm in the Wash area, to consent in November this year.

David Hodkinson managing director of Amec's wind energy business said: "This is an important step forward in building Amec's portfolio of wind developments and marks our continued firm commitment to the offshore sector. It is also in line with the expectation Amec plc set for the offshore wind business in its interim results last August."