Firm says it's too early to say if wind farms will go ahead

CENTRICA – the company building wind farms off Skegness – insists it's too early for speculation the 'credit crunch' will scupper its latest project.

The company will hold an open day at the Gibraltar Point visitor centre tomorrow (Thursday) so the public can be updated on its plans.

Two wind farms – Lynn and Inner Dowsing – have been built three miles offshore from Skegness, producing between them a total of 194MW.

The next project – called Lincs Wind Farm – will produce 250MW and be sited five miles offshore from Skegness.

Lincs Wind Farm will cost "hundreds of millions" to build, according to Neville Barltrop, community affairs manager with Centrica's renewables development team.

Mr Barltrop said he is aware of speculation Centrica might cancel the project but says it's too early to say what will happen.

He said: "We haven't actually got to the point of working the costings out. Once we know the final costs we can make a decision on if and when we will go ahead with it."

Lincs Wind Farm already has all the necessary consents to go ahead.

Centrica has plans to build two much bigger wind farms – Docking School, a mighty 500MW, to be sited 12.1 miles off Skegness, and Race Bank, producing 620MW, 17.4 miles off Chapel St Leonards. These are unlikely to be built before 2015.

Tomorrow's open day runs from 11am to 5pm.