From field to financing - energy yield assessment of two onshore CfD projects: Kype Muir and Middle Muir. Only a handful of onshore wind projects successfully secured contracts under the first CfD allocation round in 2015. We are pleased to have supported Banks Renewables in bringing two of these to financial close, Kype Muir and Middle Muir.
We supported the projects from green field through to provision of the final analyses required for project financing. The projects were located at complex sites with variable forest cover so we considered advanced wind modelling essential. We applied Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling to realistically predict not only the wind speed but also the flow conditions across the site.
This enabled us to estimate the performance at each individual turbine, reducing the overall assessment uncertainty, leading to a higher P90. Our early involvement in the project lifecycle helped to promote optimised design. The ongoing analysis we provided informed decision making at key moments helping minimise energy yield uncertainty. Some of these were in the early stages and may not have been recoverable later in the development lifecycle.
Combining our wind resource, project finance and development expertise across the lifecycle this way enables us to optimise our clients’ projects. This is increasingly important in a market where margins are tighter due to the shift from fixed to variable support mechanism pricing and increasingly contested auction processes.
