Two giants of the renewables industry, ScottishPower Renewables and Vattenfall, have entered into partnership to make joint bids in the third round of offshore wind farm development in the UK.

ScottishPower Renewables, part of the world’s largest wind power operator and developer, Iberdrola Renovables, and Vattenfall, the world’s second largest operator of offshore wind, will jointly participate in the third round of tender bids to develop offshore wind power in the UK.

Their common goal is to establish 6,000 MW of installed wind power capacity, enough clean green energy to power six million homes by 2020.

The partnership will take the form of a consortium combining extensive experience of offshore wind power and the financial strength to ensure a strong renewable energy bid. Applications for the third round of tenders are to be submitted to the UK’s Crown Estate by the beginning of March.

“For us, the partnership offers a better opportunity to achieve our goal of increasing the amount of wind power we produce to a total of 50 TWh by 2030. Great Britain is an important growth market for us and has excellent conditions for wind power,” says Anders Dahl, head of Vattenfall Wind Power AB.

“Combining the experience and knowledge of Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables will create a extremely strong and successful partnership. Round 3 is very important part of the UK’s renewable aspirations and this consortium has the skills and determination to play a key role in this process.” says Xabier Viteri, Chief Executive of Iberdrola Renovables.

Vattenfall already owns Kentish Flats, a wind farm in the Thames Estuary off Whitstable and recently acquired wind power companies AMEC Wind Energy Ltd and Eclipse Energy UK plc in Great Britain. Vattenfall also owns two of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, Lillgrund off the south coast of Sweden and Horns Rev in the Danish North Sea. Vattenfall’s strategic focus is “making electricity clean” with the goal of being climate neutral by 2050.

ScottishPower Renewables operates over 550MW of wind farms across Great Britain and Ireland and is in the process of building the world’s largest onshore wind farm, Whitelee (322MW) and recently received consent for their first offshore windfarm, West of Duddon Sands (500MW).