Chapter 664 Offshore Wind Power

"By the way, we are at home now, don't be so restrained, change into... well, your usual home clothes, you are still wearing high heels, aren't you tired..."

Hearing Barron's words, Zhang Junning blushed slightly:

"I thought you were going out..."

When Zhang Junning changed her clothes - a pink casual outfit, she looked different from her usual professional elite appearance, but a little cute - Barron took out a bottle of red wine, glanced at her, and asked:

"Would you like to drink some wine?"

"I... can't drink much, just drink one glass."

"If you don't want to drink, don't force yourself. Now we are not in a superior-subordinate relationship, you can be more casual."

Seeing that Barron had a smile on his face and didn't seem to have a hidden meaning in his words, Zhang Junning breathed a sigh of relief:

"Have a drink, Your Highness the Duke."

Picked up a red wine glass, poured one-third of it, and handed it to Zhang Junning, after she took it with both hands, Barron also poured himself a glass and said casually:

"I know that you Chinese people attach great importance to the Spring Festival. Not to mention that you don't have any opportunities to take a vacation to visit your parents, you can't even go back during the Spring Festival. Do you miss home?"

"It's okay. After all, it's necessary for work. I have thought about these before and I am mentally prepared."

"I will go to Asia next month, and I will also stay in Hong Kong, China for a while. I can give you two days off at that time to go home and visit..."

"Thank you, Your Highness..."

Zhang Junning hesitated for a moment and said:

"There is no need for me to go back specifically. I can ask my parents to go to Hong Kong to see me. Anyway, it is very convenient for both sides to travel."

Perhaps it is really like Zhang Junning said, her alcohol tolerance is not very good. After drinking only such a glass of red wine, her cheeks are slightly red.

Of course, in the end, Barron did not take advantage of the "slightly tipsy" atmosphere to have a further conversation with her. After all, today he just took this opportunity to chat with his personal assistant in a non-work capacity.

This made Zhang Junning breathe a sigh of relief after returning to the bedroom.

To be honest, she was not completely ignorant of the relationship between her predecessor, Wang Wanting, and the Duke of England, and the relationship outside of work.

After all, after serving as Barron's personal assistant, many trivial matters also needed to be handled by her.

Therefore, after Wang Wanting left her current position, she gave birth to a child for Barron, and even now many arrangements for her work were completed by Zhang Junning.

She did not think about whether one day she would...

Although she did not reject this result after putting herself in his shoes, at least now, she felt that she was not ready for this...

...

"In fact, we have one of the best offshore wind power development conditions in the world, and relying on these conditions and our efforts, we have now become a benchmark for the global offshore wind power industry..."

In the United Energy Group Building, Barron listened to the report of the British Distribution Company.

In fact, under Barron's instruction, United Energy Group has not only been involved in traditional fossil energy business, but also expanded to renewable energy including wind energy.

For example, recently, they acquired the well-known wind turbine manufacturer Dewind, after which British Power Distribution Company began to get involved in offshore wind power projects.

In fact, the world's first wind power generation equipment was born in England. In July 1887, in the countryside called "Marykirk" in Scotland, electrical engineer James Brice built the world's first wind power generation equipment in the yard of his holiday cottage, charging the battery and then providing lighting electricity for the holiday cottage.

James Brice described his wind turbine in the paper published later:

"This wind turbine adopts a tripod design, with a wind shaft of 33 feet long, a wind arm of 13 feet long, and a sail made of canvas at the end, connected to a Burqin generator through ropes and flywheels."

Limited by the technical conditions at the time, wind power generation had no cost-effectiveness, so it was not taken seriously by society.

It was not until 1970 that Britain began to reassess the feasibility of industrial-scale wind power generation.

In 1991, Britain's first commercial onshore wind farm was built in Delabole, southern England, with 10 wind turbines with a single unit capacity of 400 kilowatts.

However, due to the increasing size of modern wind turbines, the 125-meter height limit for onshore wind power facilities in Britain (except Scotland) has technically restricted the development of onshore wind power in recent years.

Therefore, the British naturally turned their attention to the sea.

Surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean, Britain has a vast sea area and frequent strong winds. Its offshore wind energy resources account for about one-third of the total in Europe, claiming to be the first in Europe.

It is estimated that if Britain develops one-third of its 0-25-meter deep sea area, it can reach a wind power installed capacity of 40 million kilowatts, which is completely sufficient for the country's electricity needs!

Of course, when offshore wind power was just starting, the problem Britain faced was that the cost was too high.

The British government's solution is to require power providers to purchase a portion of wind power at a specified price, otherwise they will have to pay a fine. This is the NFFO (Non Fossil Fuel Obligation) mechanism implemented since 1990.

In the initial stage, with the help of this policy, the British offshore wind power industry received crucial financial subsidies, allowing it to survive in the early stage of high costs.

Thanks to the NFFO mechanism, the first offshore wind farm in the UK, Blyth, was built in 2000, which is the third offshore wind farm in the world.

The Blyth offshore wind farm only installed two wind turbines with a single capacity of 2 megawatts, which were the largest offshore wind turbines in the world at that time.

However, there is another requirement for the development of offshore wind power, which is to obtain royal permission...

Because according to the law, most of the sea areas 12 nautical miles outside the British coastline belong to "public property held by the Queen of England" and are managed by a semi-independent legal entity, the Crown Estate.

Therefore, the development of British offshore wind power, especially the initial offshore shallow waters, must be approved by the Crown Estate.

In 1998, the British Wind Energy Association, now RenewableUK, with the consent of the British government, began negotiations with the Crown Estate and reached an agreement in 1999, with the latter issuing 17 experimental project construction licenses, mainly for the purpose of accumulating experience in offshore wind farm construction and operation.

This was the "initial round" in the history of British offshore wind power development, with a high starting point and a total installed capacity of 1.2 million kilowatts.

After 2002, the NFFO mechanism was gradually replaced by the RO (Renewable Obligation) mechanism.

The latter is essentially an upgraded version of the former, increasing the proportion of renewable energy that British power providers must purchase to 11.1%, and will further increase to 15.4% in 2015.

For every 1 megawatt-hour of grid-connected electricity provided by qualified power providers, they will receive a ROC (Renewable Obligation Certificate).

By 2008, onshore and offshore wind power were separated, and power providers received two ROCs for every 1 MWh of offshore wind power grid-connected electricity they provided.

In 2003, relying on the RO mechanism framework, Britain granted 15 construction permits in the second round of offshore wind power development, with a planned installed capacity of 7.2 million kilowatts.

In 2008, Britain's offshore wind power installed capacity exceeded Denmark, ranking first in the world.

In the same year, after summarizing the lessons learned from the first two rounds, the Crown Estate approved a large-scale third round of offshore wind power development plan, with a planned installed capacity of 25 million kilowatts.

Therefore, the British distribution company itself needs to purchase 11.1% of renewable energy power generation in accordance with regulations when distributing electricity in Britain, which is also the driving force behind United Energy Group's willingness to intervene in offshore wind power generation.

Although the cost of offshore wind power generation is still higher than fossil energy and nuclear power generation at this time, the government has also provided corresponding subsidies for this, and the British distribution company itself needs to purchase a corresponding proportion of renewable energy generation - after six years, this proportion will increase to 15.4%.

Moreover, Barron also knows that after Huaxia Company intervenes in this field in the future, the cost of wind power generation will be greatly reduced. In addition, Britain itself has rich offshore wind resources, so it is still very necessary to enter the entire field in advance.